The NHS continues to provide medical care in hospitals which is free to everyone (getting a bed though, in a long stay hospital if you are elderly and infirm is often not a simple matter!!!). However, under the Community Care Act of 1990, the provision of long-term care outside hospitals has become the responsibility of individual Local Authorities and it is not free to every one.

If your Local Authority agrees that you need residential or nursing home care it will assess your means to work out what proportion of the costs is your responsibility, and what the Local Authority will pay. If you can expect a contribution from your Local Authority, the Authority will contract with the home, pay the home direct but ask that you make a contribution towards the fees to them. The size of the contribution depends on the assessment of your wealth by a means test (which may include the value of your own home !)

Assets of £16,000 or more: You will not be entitled to any financial help from the Local Authority for long-term care costs in a residential or nursing home and you may have to make your own arrangements.

Assets of between £10,001 and 16,000: The amount of assistance takes into account all of your actual income and the ‘Tariff income’ (see below) on your savings above £10,000. For each £250 you have above £10,000, your tariff income is £1 per week.

Assets of £10,000 or less: You will have to give up all your income to the Local Authority. They will top it up to meet care fees. ‘Income’ consists of all your private pensions, plus most of the Social Security benefits to which you are entitled. You can, however, deduct an amount for personal spending (£15.45 a week in 2000/2001)

The monetary limits shown above apply to the individual needing care, where the Local

Authority are considering care in a nursing or residential home. Lower limits, £3000 and £8000, may apply where care is to be provided in an individuals home, and may apply to a couple rather than to an individual.

Although Local Authorities have to provide the care you need if you qualify for it, there are times when there are more demands on their budgets than they can meet, and they are unable to provide immediately all the care that is requested at any one time. This means although the care services will be made available, you may have to wait some time before you start receiving them.

Tariff Income

Any benefits which you are entitled to depend on how much income you receive. So your savings and investments will be converted into ‘income’ as shown in the table below.

Once you have added all your savings and investments together, they will be converted to a level of income as shown in the following table. This income is known as “tariff income”.

These rates may change in the future, though they are not linked to inflation.

Savings and Investments 

Up to £10,000 Completely ignored.

£10,000 to £16,000 - Each £250 (or part of £250) over £10,000 produces a tariff income of £1 a week.

Over £16,000 You will not be entitled to benefit until the value of your savings and investments fall below £16000.