Care home funding assessment

You will be expected to pay towards the cost of your accommodation in a care home from your income such as your State Pension, and from your capital if you have more than £18,000. Before you can receive any financial assistance from the council, it must: • carry out a care needs assessment for you • decide if any of your assessed needs come under Free Personal and Nursing Care Free Personal and Nursing Care • carry out a financial assessment to work out how much financial help you can get towards the rest of your care home fees. The financial assessment looks at how much income and capital you have. There is more information about income and capital later in this guide. It applies if you move into a care home permanently, and it may also apply if you are a temporary resident (see section 8 for information about temporary residents).

Free Personal and Nursing Care

In Scotland, personal care and nursing care are free to anyone who has been assessed as needing them. If the council decides that your needs can best be met in a care home, you may qualify for one or both types of free care. The council will make a payment to the care home to cover this part of your care. From April 2021, the amounts the council will pay to the care home for your personal and nursing care are: • £193.50 per week for personal care • £87.10 per week for nursing care • £280.60 to cover both personal care and nursing care. The council will only pay the rate for nursing care if you have been assessed as needing it and you move to a home where 24-hour nursing care is available. Once you have been assessed as needing care in a care home, the council will set up a contract with the home. The personal and nursing care payments can only begin once this contract is in place, so if you are making your own care home arrangements, check that the council will be ready to make payments from the day you move in.

What the council can pay

Each year the council sets standard rates for residential care and nursing care. These rates will be used to calculate how much you will need to pay towards your care home fees. If you decided to move into a care home that charges more than the standard rate per week, for the level of care you are assessed as needing, a top-up payment from a third party such as a relative or charity would be needed to cover the difference. The standard rates for 2021/22 are: • £653.79 per resident per week for residential care • £762.20 per resident per week for residential and nursing care.