Care fees calculator
Put in the numbers you have actually been quoted and see the weekly cost, the annual cost, where you sit against the capital limits, and roughly how long savings would last before the local authority becomes involved. Nothing is stored and no email address is needed.
Work out the weekly and annual position
Enter what you know. Leave anything you do not know blank and the calculator will simply leave it out.
What the calculator is doing with your numbers
Care fee arithmetic is not complicated. It only feels complicated because the figures arrive from four different places and nobody puts them on one page. This is what happens behind the button.
The cost side
For a care home it takes the weekly fee you were quoted. For care at home it multiplies the hourly rate by the hours. If you choose a nursing home it deducts NHS-funded Nursing Care at £267.68 a week, because the NHS pays that directly to the home. Always check whether the fee you were quoted was before or after that deduction — homes present it both ways and the difference is nearly £14,000 a year.
The income side
In a care home, almost all income is taken into account, but you must be left with the Personal Expenses Allowance — £31.80 a week for 2026/27. Attendance Allowance is included where it is in payment, though it normally stops after four weeks in a care home if the local authority is funding the placement. For care at home the rules are more generous, and the Minimum Income Guarantee protects a floor of income that the calculator deliberately does not try to guess.
The capital side
Above £23,250 you are treated as able to meet the full cost. Between £23,250 and £14,250, capital generates a notional “tariff income” of £1 a week for every £250 — money you are assumed to contribute whether or not your savings actually earn it. Below £14,250, capital is ignored.
The runway
If capital is above the upper limit, the calculator estimates how long it would take to fall to £23,250 at the current rate. This is the single most useful number on the page, because it tells you when to start talking to the local authority — and the answer is always “about three months before you get there”, not after.
- Whether the property should be disregarded, in full or for the first 12 weeks
- Whether NHS Continuing Healthcare should be funding the whole thing
- Whether a top-up fee is being charged that should not be
- What the fee will be after next April's increase
- Which income is disregarded in your particular circumstances
- Whether the care being quoted for is actually the care that is needed
Three things that change the answer more than the fee does
NHS Continuing Healthcare
If the primary need is a health need, the NHS pays for everything and the calculation above becomes irrelevant. It is not means-tested and it is routinely missed. Check the CHC position →
The property disregard
Whether the family home counts at all depends on who else lives there and what kind of care is being arranged. Families sell houses they did not need to sell. How the means test works →
Whether the care is right
A cheaper placement that fails in six months costs more than a suitable one. The most expensive mistake is not the fee — it is the wrong setting. Choosing well →
What to do with your result
Sense-check the fee
Ask the provider what the fee excludes, what triggers a re-band, and what the increase has been in each of the last three years.
Test the free routes
Ask for a Continuing Healthcare checklist and, in a nursing home, confirm NHS-funded Nursing Care is being applied. Claim Attendance Allowance if it has not been claimed.
Diarise the threshold
If the runway figure is under a year, contact the local authority now. Funding is not usually backdated to the day you became eligible.
Get it in writing
Ask for the financial assessment calculation, not just the conclusion. If it does not add up, that is a conversation worth having early.
Questions about the calculator
Is this an official financial assessment?
No. Only the local authority can carry out a financial assessment, and only they can decide what you will be asked to contribute. This calculator uses the published 2026/27 England figures to show you the shape of the problem before that conversation, so you can tell whether the answer you are given later looks right.
Why does it not tell me the average cost of a care home?
Because the average is not your fee, and quoting one would be worse than useless. Fees vary by region, by setting, by whether nursing is involved and by how a particular home prices its bands. The number that matters is the one written in the contract in front of you.
Should I include the value of the house in savings and capital?
Only if you already know it is being counted. For care at home it is never counted. For a permanent care home move it may be disregarded — for example if a spouse, a relative over 60 or a disabled relative still lives there — and there is often a 12-week disregard at the start of a placement. If in doubt, run the calculation both ways and get the position confirmed in writing.
What is tariff income and why am I charged on money I do not earn?
Where capital sits between £14,250 and £23,250, the rules assume it generates £1 a week of income for every £250. It is a notional figure, not real interest, and it applies whether or not your savings earn anything. It is one of the reasons the band between the two limits erodes faster than people expect.
Does Attendance Allowance stop in a care home?
It usually stops after four weeks if the local authority is funding the placement. If you are self-funding, it normally continues — which is exactly why so many self-funders should be claiming it and are not. It is not means-tested and it is worth £76.70 or £114.60 a week.
The runway figure looks frightening. What should I do?
Use it. It tells you when to act rather than what to fear. Contact the local authority around three months before capital reaches £23,250, ask for a needs assessment and a financial assessment, and establish early whether a third-party top-up would be needed to stay where you are. Families who plan this transition keep their choices. Families who reach the threshold first rarely do.
Can I use this for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?
The cost side works anywhere. The capital limits, personal expenses allowance and nursing care rates in the calculation are the England figures for 2026/27, and the other UK nations set their own — Scotland in particular has free personal and nursing care contributions that change the picture significantly.
Is this financial advice?
No. We are not authorised to give FCA-regulated financial advice and we do not carry out reserved legal activities. This is an arithmetic tool. Where regulated advice is needed — care fee annuities, deprivation of assets, trusts, deferred payments — we will say so and point you to someone properly regulated.
Can somebody just look at our actual figures?
Yes. The free 20-minute care needs call is exactly for this, and if a fuller piece of work would help, the Funding Entitlement Check produces a written, independent view of what should and should not be being paid.
Understand the figures behind the calculator
Care costs explained
Who pays, in what order, with the 2026/27 figures.
CHC checklist tool
Test whether NHS Continuing Healthcare is worth pursuing.
Planning ahead
Powers of attorney, funding and decisions before a crisis.
Services & prices
Every service and every fixed fee in one place.
You don’t need to know which service you need.
Just tell us what’s happening.
No pressure. No care-provider commissions. Just a conversation about what may help.Independent · no commission from any care provider · fees published
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