Care home fees and your will

By SwiftWillUpdated 24 September 2026England and Wales

Quick answer

In England, someone with more than £23,250 of assessable capital pays the full cost of a care home, and in Wales the limit for residential care is £50,000. Your home is usually counted after the first 12 weeks unless a partner or certain relatives still live there. A will only takes effect on death, so it cannot shield your own assets while you are alive, and giving assets away to reduce care charges can be treated as deliberate deprivation. What a will can do is decide how your assets pass after your death, including to a surviving partner.

This guide explains the rules councils use to decide what people pay towards care, and where a will fits. It is general information, not financial advice. Care funding decisions depend on individual assessments, and the rules below are those published by the Department of Health and Social Care for England and by the Welsh Government for Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems; see SwiftWill and Scotland.

How are care home fees assessed in England?

After a needs assessment, the council carries out a financial assessment of your own income and capital under the Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014. The Department of Health and Social Care's local authority circular for 2026 to 2027 confirms the capital limits are unchanged.

Care charging figures for England (2026 to 2027) and Wales (from April 2026)
Rule	England	Wales
Capital above which you pay the full care home cost	£23,250	£50,000
Capital that is ignored	Below £14,250; £1 a week for every £250 between the limits	At or below the limit, no contribution from capital
Care at home	Same limits as a minimum; councils may set higher ones	£24,000 capital limit; charges capped at £100 a week
Weekly amount a council-funded care home resident keeps	£31.80 personal expenses allowance	£46.35 minimum income amount

Wales figures are from the Care and Support (Charging) (Wales) Regulations 2015 (regulations 7, 11 and 13) and the Welsh Government's charging for social care page.

Three rules matter for planning. Each person is assessed individually: the Care and support statutory guidance (paragraph 8.8) says a council has no power to assess a couple on their joint resources. Jointly owned capital is treated as split equally unless there is evidence of unequal shares (Annex B, paragraph 12). And some care must be free, including intermediate care and reablement for up to six weeks, and NHS continuing healthcare where the NHS is responsible (paragraph 8.14).

Does your home count towards care home fees?

Your home is ignored while you receive care anywhere other than a care home. In a care home, it is ignored in some situations and counted in others. Annex B of the statutory guidance sets out the rules for England.

Ignored while certain people live there. The value of your main or only home must be disregarded if, since before you went into the care home, it has been lived in as their main or only home by your partner, former partner or civil partner (unless estranged), a lone parent who is your estranged or divorced partner, or a relative or family member who is aged 60 or over, is your child under 18, or is incapacitated.
Ignored at the council's discretion. Councils can also disregard the home in other cases, for example where it is the only home of someone who gave up their own home to care for you.
The 12-week property disregard. When you first move into a care home permanently, or when another disregard ends unexpectedly because the qualifying person has died or moved into care, the home is ignored for 12 weeks.
After that. Your beneficial share is valued at market value, less 10% if there would be sale costs and less any debt secured on it, such as a mortgage (Annex B, paragraph 14).

If your capital apart from the home is £23,250 or less and the home is counted, the council must offer a deferred payment agreement if you can provide adequate security (statutory guidance, paragraph 9.7). The care costs are secured on the home and repaid when it is sold or from your estate after death, so you are not forced to sell in your lifetime. Wales has its own 12-week and qualifying-relative disregards in Schedule 2 of the Care and Support (Financial Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2015.

What is deliberate deprivation of assets?

Deprivation of assets means a person intentionally reducing their assets to reduce what they are charged for care, at a time when they knew they needed care and support. Both the English regulations (regulation 22) and the Welsh regulations (regulation 22) let a council treat someone as still owning capital they deprived themselves of. Annex E of the statutory guidance explains how English councils apply this:

People are free to spend their money as they wish, including gifts to family, and deprivation must not be assumed.
The council considers whether avoiding the care charge was a significant motivation in the timing of the disposal, and whether the person could reasonably have expected to need care and to contribute towards it at that time. Someone who was fit and healthy and could not have foreseen needing care should not be treated as having deprived themselves.
Common examples it lists include lump-sum gifts, transferring the title deeds of a property, putting assets into a trust that cannot be revoked, converting assets into ones that are disregarded, and extravagant spending.
If deprivation is found, the council can charge as if the person still had the asset. If it was transferred to someone else, that person can be liable for the shortfall, but not for more than they gained.

The guidance does not use a fixed look-back period such as the seven years that matter for inheritance tax. The question is purpose and timing, and it is up to the person to show what happened to an asset.

Why can a will not protect your own assets from care costs?

A will has no effect until you die. While you are alive, the council assesses what you own, including your share of any home, under the rules above. Writing a will, changing it, or leaving your home to your children in it does not reduce your assessable capital. Moving assets out of your ownership during your lifetime, by gift or into a lifetime trust, is exactly what the deprivation rules look at, and HMRC may still count a home you give away but keep living in for inheritance tax. Our guide to leaving your house to your children covers that tax point.

Owning the home as tenants in common does not change this either. Your own share is still yours while you are alive, and it is either disregarded because your partner lives there or counted under the normal rules.

What can a will do for a surviving partner?

A will decides what happens to your assets after your death, and that affects what your partner owns if they later need care. If you leave everything to your partner outright, it becomes their capital. The statutory guidance gives an example: a husband dies and leaves the home to his wife, who is already in a care home; with no qualifying person living there any more, its value can now be taken into account, after a 12-week disregard.

Some people instead leave their share of the home, or other assets, to their children, or into a life interest trust under which their partner can live in the home or receive the income for life. The English charging rules disregard the value of a right to receive income under a life interest, and a person is not treated as owning capital they have no beneficial right to (Annex B, paragraphs 13 and 33). How a council treats a particular trust depends on its terms, so this is not a guaranteed outcome.

Weigh the costs before choosing this route:

Your partner has less security and flexibility, because they cannot sell or spend your share as their own.
A spouse or civil partner who is not left reasonable provision can apply to court under the Inheritance Act 1975.
It usually requires owning the home as tenants in common, trustees to manage the trust, and inheritance tax and residence nil-rate band planning (see trusts in wills).
If your partner inherits outright and then gives assets away or redirects them into a trust, that is their own disposal of their own assets and can be examined under the deprivation rules.

SwiftWill's automated will does not draft life interest or other care-related trusts, and its suitability check sends anyone who needs a trust to a solicitor. We do not sell wills as a way to avoid care fees.

When should you take advice?

Take advice from a solicitor who deals with care funding, and from a regulated financial adviser where investments are involved, if:

you or your partner already receive care, or are likely to need it soon;
you are thinking about giving away money or property, or setting up any trust;
a relative or carer lives in the home and you want to know whether it will be disregarded;
you want your share of the home to pass other than to your partner;
you are considering a deferred payment agreement or equity release.

A lasting power of attorney for property and financial affairs can matter more than a will here: the statutory guidance expects councils to work with an attorney or deputy when a person lacks capacity to deal with the financial assessment. For the wider picture, see what a will does not cover and whether you need a solicitor.

Sources

Sources checked 24 September 2026.

Which related guide should you read next?

Appointing a guardian in your will — Who can appoint a guardian for a child, when the appointment takes effect, choosing a back-up, who manages the money, and unmarried fathers' position.
How to change or update a will — Change a will with a codicil or a new will, never by writing on it. How marriage and divorce affect a will, when to review it and how SwiftWill updates work.
Life insurance, pensions and your will — Which assets pass outside your will: life cover in trust, pension death benefits, joint accounts and joint property, and how to keep them in line with it.
Do I need a solicitor to make a will? — Not for a simple estate. When a solicitor is worth it: trusts, tax, business or foreign assets, blended families, leaving out a dependant or capacity doubts.

Frequently asked questions

How much can I have before paying for a care home in England?

For 2026 to 2027 the upper capital limit in England is £23,250 and the lower limit is £14,250. Above £23,250 of assessable capital you pay the full cost of a care home; between the two limits you pay from income plus £1 a week for every £250 of capital above £14,250.

Is my house counted for care home fees?

Often, but not always. Your home is ignored if your partner, a relative aged 60 or over, a child of yours under 18 or an incapacitated relative has lived there since before you went into care. Otherwise its value is usually ignored for the first 12 weeks of a permanent care home stay and counted after that.

Can a will protect my house from care home fees?

Not during your lifetime. A will only takes effect when you die, so it does not change how your own assets, including your share of the home, are assessed while you are alive. It can decide what happens to your assets after your death, which may affect what a surviving partner later owns.

What is deliberate deprivation of assets?

It is when someone gives away or converts assets in order to reduce what they pay for care, at a time when they could reasonably expect to need care. The council can then treat them as still owning the asset, and can recover the shortfall from the person who received it, up to the value they received.

Is there a seven-year rule for care home fees?

No. The seven-year period is an inheritance tax rule. The care charging guidance looks at why and when an asset was given away, including whether avoiding care charges was a significant motivation and whether the need for care was foreseeable, not at a fixed number of years.

Are care fee rules the same in Wales?

No. For residential care, Wales uses a capital limit of £50,000, and for care at home a capital limit of £24,000 with a maximum charge of £100 a week, under the Welsh charging regulations as they stand from April 2026. Wales also has its own property disregards and deprivation rules.

Is my partner's money counted when I go into a care home?

No. In England the statutory guidance says councils have no power to assess couples on their joint resources, so each person is assessed individually. Jointly owned capital is normally treated as split equally unless there is evidence of unequal shares.

Plan what happens after your death

A will cannot change how care is paid for in your lifetime. It does decide who inherits.

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