Am I Entitled to a Care Needs Assessment in England?

Who this guide is for

Adults in England who need help to manage day to day because of illness, disability or age, and the family members or friends who care for them. It covers the right to a care needs assessment from the council, who qualifies for help, carer's assessments, what happens after the assessment, paying for care and how to complain. The law is the Care Act 2014.

What this guide does not cover

• Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland: the law is different. Read the guide for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.
• Care for a child, including a disabled child. This guide does not cover it: ask the council children's services. (Planning for a young person turning 18 is under "Less common situations".)
• Care paid for in full by the NHS because your needs are mainly health needs. This guide does not cover it: ask the NHS or your GP.
• Benefits such as Attendance Allowance, PIP and Carer's Allowance: see our benefits guide.
• Managing someone's money or decisions for them (power of attorney): see our power of attorney guide.
• Which income counts in the financial assessment, in detail, and how direct payments work in detail. This guide does not cover them: ask the council or Age UK.
• Abuse or neglect of an adult: see our guide How do I report a care concern in England?

What the rules depend on

1. Is the person 18 or over and living in England? If under 18, it is a matter for children's services. If they live in another nation, a different law applies.
2. Does it look as if they may need care and support? If yes, the council must assess them. There is no money test and no minimum level of need for the assessment itself.
3. Does the assessment find needs that meet the eligibility test? If yes, the council writes a care and support plan. If no, it must still give information about services that could help.
4. Is the care at home or in a care home? The money rules are different.
5. Is a care home stay permanent, or temporary such as respite? The money rules are different again.
6. For a permanent move into a care home: does the person own their home, and does anyone still live there? That decides whether the home counts.

"Can I get a care needs assessment?"

Under section 9 of the Care Act 2014 the council must assess any adult who appears to need care and support, whatever it thinks about the level of those needs or the person's money.

Anyone can ask for a needs assessment. Contact adult social services at your council, by phone or online.

The council that must assess you is the one where you usually live. If you have no settled home, it is the council for the area you are in.

The assessment looks at how your needs affect your wellbeing, what you want to achieve day to day, and whether care and support could help. It must also consider whether other things, including help available in your community, could help you. The council must involve you, any carer you have, and anyone you ask it to involve.

You can have a friend or relative with you. If you would have great difficulty understanding, remembering or weighing up information, or saying what you want, the council must arrange an independent advocate to speak up for you. This applies if there is nobody suitable to support you (not someone paid to care for you).

The council must give you a written record of the assessment. It must give a copy to your carer, or anyone else, if you ask.

You can refuse an assessment. The council must still assess you if you lack the capacity to decide and it is in your best interests, or if you are at risk of abuse or neglect.

If your needs look urgent, the council can arrange care before it has done the assessment, for example if you are terminally ill.

"Do I qualify for help?"

After the assessment the council decides whether your needs meet the eligibility criteria. The test is set in law for every council in England. Your needs qualify if all three of these apply:

• your needs come from, or are related to, a physical or mental impairment or illness
• because of your needs, you are unable to do two or more of the things on the list below
• as a result, there is, or is likely to be, a significant impact on your wellbeing.

The list

• eating and drinking properly (managing and maintaining nutrition)
• keeping yourself clean
• using the toilet
• dressing appropriately
• using your home safely
• keeping your home fit to live in
• keeping up relationships with family or friends
• taking part in work, training, education or volunteering
• using local facilities and services, including public transport and leisure
• looking after a child you are responsible for.

What "unable to do" means

You count as unable to do something if you:

• cannot do it without help
• can do it without help, but it causes you significant pain, distress or anxiety
• can do it without help, but it puts your health or safety, or someone else's, at risk
• can do it without help, but it takes you much longer than would normally be expected.

If your needs go up and down, the council must look at them over a long enough period to get an accurate picture.

The council must give you its decision in writing, with its reasons.

Carers have their own test: see "I look after someone".

"What happens after the assessment?"

The council decides whether you need help and gives you the results. If you qualify, it writes a care and support plan with you setting out how it will help. It must ask whether you want it to meet your needs.

The plan sets out your needs, which of them qualify, which ones the council will meet and how, and your personal budget: what the care costs, how much you must pay, and how much the council will pay. You get a copy, and so does your carer or anyone else you name, if you ask.

The council does not have to meet needs that a carer is already meeting for you.

You or your carer can ask the council to review the plan, and it must do so if the request is reasonable. If your circumstances change, it must reassess you and change the plan.

If the council is paying towards your care, you can ask it to give you the money as a direct payment so you can arrange your own care. It must agree if you can make the request yourself, you can manage the payments (on your own or with help), and it is a suitable way to meet your needs. Someone you nominate can receive the payments for you.

Whether or not your needs qualify, the council must give you information about services that could help. If it decides not to meet your needs, it must give you its reasons in writing.

"I look after someone"

If you are 18 or over and care for an adult, or plan to, you can ask the council for a carer's assessment. It is free, and how much money you or the person you care for has makes no difference.

Care includes practical or emotional support. You do not count as a carer if you care under a contract (such as a paid care worker) or as voluntary work, unless the council thinks your relationship with the person makes it right to treat you as one.

The assessment looks at whether you are able and willing to carry on caring, the effect on your wellbeing, and whether you work or want to, or want to study, train or have time for yourself. It must involve you and anyone you ask it to involve.

It is separate from the needs assessment of the person you care for, but you can ask for both to be done at the same time if you and the person you care for both agree.

Do I qualify for help as a carer?

Your needs as a carer qualify if all three of these apply:

• your needs come from caring for an adult
• because of caring, your physical or mental health is getting worse or is at risk of getting worse, or you are unable to do one or more of these: look after a child, care for anyone else, keep your home fit to live in, eat and drink properly, keep up relationships, work, train, study or volunteer, use local facilities and services, or take part in leisure activities
• as a result, there is, or is likely to be, a significant impact on your wellbeing.

If you qualify for help, the council writes a plan with you. You may need a financial assessment first. If the council supports you by providing care to the person you look after (for example a break for you), it cannot charge you for that care.

You can refuse a carer's assessment.

If you care for a disabled child, contact the council's children with disabilities department instead.

"Will I have to pay?"

Some help is always free. The council must not charge for equipment (aids) and minor adaptations costing £1,000 or less, or for intermediate care and reablement for the first 6 weeks.

The council can charge for other care and support. To decide how much you pay, it carries out a financial assessment of your income and capital (savings, investments and property). It must give you a written record of it. If you refuse the financial assessment, the council treats you as being over the upper limit. A charge can only cover what the care costs the council.

In 2026 to 2027 the upper capital limit is £23,250 and the lower capital limit is £14,250.

• Capital above the upper limit: you pay the full cost of a care home.
• Capital between the two limits: you pay what you can afford from your income, plus £1 a week for every £250 of capital between the limits, and £1 for any part of £250 left over.
• Capital below the lower limit: you pay only what you can afford from your income.

How capital is counted: savings you own jointly with someone else count as an equal share each (jointly owned property is valued differently: ask the council). Property and investments count at their current value less 10% for the cost of selling, and less any debt secured on them, such as a mortgage. Personal possessions are ignored, unless you bought them to reduce your capital.

For care other than in a care home, the council can choose to use higher capital limits. When you get care at home, the value of the home you live in is not counted.

In a care home paid for by the council, you keep at least £31.80 a week for personal spending (2026 to 2027). For care at home, the council must leave you with at least a set weekly income (the Minimum Income Guarantee). It depends on your age and circumstances: for a single person over Pension Credit age it is £241.45 a week in 2026 to 2027. The other weekly amounts from April 2026 are:

• Single, aged 18 to 24: £95.40
• Single, aged 25 to Pension Credit age: £120.40
• Lone parent: £116.80
• One of a couple: £94.55 (£184.30 if one or both of you are over Pension Credit age)
• Added for each child you are responsible for and live with: £106.85
• Added disability premium: £51.55 single, £36.75 couple
• Added enhanced disability premium: £25.15 single, £18.10 couple
• Added carer premium: £55.25

The premiums apply if you get, or the council thinks you would get, that premium if you were on Income Support. The same amounts protect carers who are charged for their own support. If the council provides you with support that is not care, the amount is reduced by what that support costs it.

There is no cap on care costs in force.

"I'll pay the full cost - can the council still arrange my care?"

If you pay the full cost of care at home, you can still ask the council to arrange your care. It can charge a fee, but only to cover its own cost of arranging it. For a care home place, ask the council whether it will arrange it.

"Will I have to sell my home to pay for a care home?"

If you move permanently into a care home, the council ignores the value of your home for the first 12 weeks, starting on the day you move in. You still pay towards your care from your income and other capital during those weeks.

Your home is not counted at all while it is still the home of certain people who lived there before you moved into the care home. They are your partner, a relative or member of your family who is aged 60 or over or is incapacitated, or your child under 18. If they moved in later, the council can choose to ignore it. If that relative dies, or moves into a care home themselves, your home is still ignored for 12 weeks after that.

If you left your home after separating or divorcing, your share is ignored while your former partner lives there and is a lone parent. The council can also choose to ignore your home if someone else lives there and it thinks that is reasonable.

A deferred payment agreement lets you put off paying care home fees from the value of your home, so you do not have to sell it in your lifetime. The debt is repaid when the home is sold, or from your estate.

The council must offer a deferred payment agreement if your eligible needs are to be met in a care home, your capital not counting your home is at or below the upper limit, and your home is not already ignored. The council takes a legal charge on the home and can charge interest and fees. You can end a deferred payment agreement: ask the council how.

You can tell the council which care home you would prefer, and it must arrange a place there if the conditions in the rules are met.

A more expensive care home: someone else, such as a relative, can pay the extra (a top-up) under a written agreement with the council. You can pay your own top-up only during the first 12 weeks while your home is ignored, or under a deferred payment agreement.

Giving money or property away: if you gave it away to reduce your care charges, the council can treat you as still having it. The same applies to income you give up to reduce your charges. The rules set no time limit. The person who received it may have to pay the council the charges avoided, up to the value they received.

Unpaid care charges can be recovered as a debt within six years of becoming due. If the council could have offered you a deferred payment agreement, it cannot recover the charges as a debt unless it offered one and you refused. If someone gives the council false information, or keeps back something important, they can be made to pay back what that cost the council.

"The council refused, is delaying, or I disagree"

Complain to the council first, using its adult social care complaints procedure. Councils normally expect a complaint within 12 months of the problem.

If you are still unhappy, go to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. It normally looks at a complaint only after the council has had the chance to deal with it, and you should usually go to it within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. It also looks at complaints about care providers.

There is no separate appeal system for care decisions in force: the complaints route is the way to challenge a decision. You can also ask for your care and support plan to be reviewed (see "What happens after the assessment?").

Less common situations

Short stays and respite in a care home

If your stay is likely to last no more than 52 weeks (a temporary resident), your home is ignored as long as you intend to go back to it and it is still available. For a stay of up to 8 weeks, the council can charge you as if you were getting care at home. The rule that you pay the full cost above £23,250 applies to permanent residents.

Going back into a care home

If you move back into a care home within 52 weeks, the 12 weeks your home is ignored count in total across both stays. If it is more than 52 weeks later, you get a new 12 weeks.

An unexpected change in your money

If your finances change unexpectedly, the council can choose to ignore your home for 12 weeks.

Other money that is ignored

Some capital is not counted, including personal injury trusts and payments, business assets, the surrender value of life insurance, and pension rights. Ask the council for the full list.

Money you gave away

If the council treats you as still having money you gave away, the amount it counts goes down over time.

Moving to another council area

If you plan to move to another council in England, tell both councils. If the new council has not finished its own assessment by the day you move, it must meet the needs your old council was meeting, and your carer's needs if they carry on caring.

Placed in a care home in another area

If your council arranges a care home for you in another area, it stays responsible for you. Disputes between councils are decided by the Secretary of State.

Turning 18

If a child, or a young carer under 18, is likely to need care and support after turning 18, the council must assess them before they turn 18 if that would be of significant benefit.

Leaving hospital

If the hospital thinks you are likely to need care and support after you leave, it must involve you and your carer in planning your discharge.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Care and support is free for people with variant CJD.

Abuse or neglect

If an adult with care and support needs is being abused or neglected, or is at risk of it, the council must make enquiries. See our guide How do I report a care concern in England?

Deadlines

• Complaint to the council: normally within 12 months of the problem.
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman: usually within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem.

Traps

• Being told you have too much money to be assessed: the assessment does not depend on money.
• Being told you don't qualify without being given reasons: the council must give its decision and reasons in writing.
• Being charged for equipment, a minor adaptation of £1,000 or less, or the first 6 weeks of reablement: these are free.
• Thinking a care home means selling your home straight away: the 12 weeks, the relatives rule and deferred payment agreements all apply first.
• Using figures from another nation: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different limits.
• Hearing about a cap on care costs: it never came into force.
• A carer's assessment is about the carer's own needs, not a check on how well they care.