Understand the financial assessment (means test)

After you’ve had the results of your care needs assessment, we’ll ask you to complete a financial assessment.

The financial assessment looks at all your income, savings and investments in detail. This will determine:

how much you have to pay for your care and support
how much, if anything, the council will contribute to these costs

When to complete it

You'll have 14 days to complete the assessment and provide your supporting documents. This time frame starts as soon as we ask you to take the assessment.

It might take some time to find all the information you need to provide. We recommend you start finding these documents as soon as you can.

If we don't receive your completed assessment and all supporting documents within 14 days, you'll be charged the full cost for any care you are receiving.

Watch a video about the financial assessment process

Who can get financial help

Most people will need to pay at least something towards their care. How we decide is based on how much you have in capital - the total value of your savings and investments.

If you have capital of:

more than £23,250 - you will need to pay the full cost for your care (called self-funding) until your capital falls below £23,250
between £14,250 and £23,250 - you may still qualify for help to pay, but we will include this amount in our calculations of what you should pay
less than £14,250 - you may be eligible for help to pay for your care, and you will be left with at least this amount of savings if you have it

Get an estimate of your contribution

You can get an idea of what the results of your financial assessment might be by using our estimators. Find out more about estimating your contribution to care costs

Our charging policy

Our charging policy explains the legal context of charging for adult social care services, and how different types of services and support are charged.

Read our Charging Policy in full for Adult Social Care (PDF, 403.5 KB)

Get help to complete the assessment

A friend or family member can help you with the assessment, as long as they have your permission and you sign the form yourself.

If you need someone to complete the assessment and sign it on your behalf, you can ask:

What we need to know about

As part of your financial assessment, you’ll need to provide proof of the financial information you give us. You can find a list of the evidence we accept for everything we ask about in the next step.

Income

We need to know about any income you get from pensions and benefits as part of the assessment.

We do not consider any salary that you get paid as part of the assessment.

You will most likely need to pay at least something from your income towards the costs of your care.

Savings and investments (capital)

We look at your savings and investments, including:

bank or building society accounts
property you own
land
national savings certificates
premium bonds
stocks and shares

If you have capital (the total value of your savings and investments) above £14,250, we will assess every £250 over this amount.

Every £250 (or part of £250) above £14,250 is looked at as an extra £1 per week of income.

For example: if you have capital of £4,000 above the lower capital limit of £14,250, we'll take into account £16 a week as income.

Property you own

If you’re moving into a care or nursing home, we need to know about the value of any property you own. The value of your property will be counted towards the cost of a care or nursing home placement.

We ask about the value of your main home if you’re moving into a care or nursing home. If you’re getting any other kind of care from us, we do not need to know about the value of the home that you live in.

Disability-related expenditure

If you’re getting care at home or other kinds of care in the community, we’ll ask about any extra costs you have because of a disability.

Search Results