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🤝 Social Care Guide

Am I Entitled to a Care Needs Assessment in Northern Ireland?

Getting your care needs assessed by your Health and Social Care Trust, carers' assessments, paying for a care home, when your home counts and how to complain to the Ombudsman.

✅ Last verified: 25 September 2026 📚 Sources: listed at the end, each checked on the date shown 🇬🇧 Northern Ireland

Who this guide is for

Adults in Northern Ireland 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 getting your needs assessed, carers' assessments, paying for a care home and how to complain.

What this guide does not cover

England, Wales or Scotland: the law is different. Read the guide for England, Wales, Scotland.
Care for a child, including a disabled child. This guide does not cover it: ask your Trust about children's services.
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: use the benefits checker.
Managing someone's money or decisions for them (power of attorney): use the power of attorney checker.
Charges for care at home, and deferred payments. This guide does not cover them: ask your Trust or Advice NI. Meals delivered to your home are normally charged for.

⚖ At a glance

Social care is arranged by the five Health and Social Care Trusts.
You have a needs assessment before any financial assessment.
A carer can ask for their own assessment. The right to it does not depend on money.
In a care home, what you pay depends on your income and capital.
Your home counts as capital only after 12 weeks in permanent care, and not if certain close relatives still live there.

The questions that decide the answer

Is the person living in Northern Ireland? If they live in another nation, a different law applies.
Does the person need help at home or a place in a care home? The Trust assesses needs first.
For a care home: how much capital does the person have, and is the stay permanent or temporary? That decides what they pay and whether the home counts.

"Can I get a care needs assessment?"

In Northern Ireland your Health and Social Care Trust, not a council, carries out care needs assessments. The five Trusts are Belfast, Northern, South Eastern, Southern and Western.

Care in your own home is offered to people who need help with things like washing, dressing, cooking, cleaning or managing money. Ask your Trust for an assessment.

You will have a needs assessment before a financial assessment.

"I look after someone"

You can ask the Trust for a carer's assessment. Your right to an assessment, and to the support you may get, is not linked to your income or capital.

Social services draw up a care plan based on your carer's assessment and the assessment of the person you care for. Make sure it covers what would happen in an emergency.

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

Before you move into a home, the Trust assesses your income and capital to work out how much you pay.

If you have over £23,250 in capital, the Trust assesses you as able to pay for all your care home fees.
Capital between £14,250 and £23,250 is counted as giving you an income of £1 a week for every £250.
Capital of £14,250 or under is ignored.

If you own your home, it counts as capital 12 weeks after you move permanently into a care home. It does not count while any of these still live there: your spouse, partner or civil partner; a close relative who is 60 or over or disabled; a close relative under 16 you are legally responsible for; or an ex-partner who is a lone parent. During a temporary stay your home is not counted.

If you live in a nursing home and have assessed nursing needs, the Trust pays £100 a week towards the cost of the nursing.

In a care home you must be left with £34.10 a week to spend as you want.

Giving money or property away: the Trust may decide you deprived yourself of it to reduce your charge, and treat you as still having it.

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

Complain to your Trust first. From 1 January 2026 every HSC organisation follows the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman's two-stage model complaints procedure.

If you are still unhappy, you can go to the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO). It generally expects complaints within 6 months of being told the complaints procedure is complete.

Deadlines

NIPSO: generally within 6 months of the letter saying the complaints procedure is complete.
A permanent move into a care home: your home counts as capital after 12 weeks.

Where to go for help

Your Health and Social Care Trust: to ask for a needs assessment or a carer's assessment.

Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO): freephone 0800 34 34 24, nipso.org.uk

Advice NI: 0800 915 4604

Traps

Contacting the council: in Northern Ireland social care is run by the Trusts.
Using Scotland's or Wales's limits: Northern Ireland uses its own figures.
Thinking your home counts from day one: it counts only after 12 weeks of permanent care, and not if certain close relatives live there.

📜 Sources (checked 25 September 2026)

nidirect: Paying your residential care or nursing home fees; Paying your care home fees (Trust financial assessment; over £23,250 pay all; £1 a week for every £250 between £14,250 and £23,250; £14,250 or under ignored; home counts after 12 weeks of permanent care, not if certain close relatives live there, not during a temporary stay; Trust pays £100 a week towards nursing; needs assessment before financial assessment) - checked 25 September 2026.
nidirect: Assessments for carers (right not linked to income or capital; care plan; emergency planning); Support to stay in your own home (the five Trusts; care in your own home) - checked 25 September 2026.
NIPSO model complaints procedure for HSC organisations from 1 January 2026, NIPSO 6 months and 0800 34 34 24, Advice NI number, as verified for earlier UK Work Rights guides (24-25 September 2026).
nidirect: Paying your care home fees (last updated 5 August 2026: GBP 34.10 a week; when your home is not counted; deprivation of a capital asset); Arranging health and social care (6 July 2026: normally a charge for meals at home). Checked 11 October 2026.

💬 Check your own situation

Describe what has happened. The checker answers only from this guide, plus what you tell it, and says so if something is not covered.

Check My Care Rights →

⚠ Important disclaimer: This guide covers care needs assessments and paying for adult social care in Northern Ireland as at 25 September 2026. General legal information only, not legal advice. ukworkrights.co.uk — Not a law firm.

Am I Entitled to a Care Needs Assessment in Northern Ireland?

Who this guide is for

What this guide does not cover

⚖ At a glance

The questions that decide the answer

"Can I get a care needs assessment?"

"I look after someone"

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

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

Deadlines

Where to go for help

Traps

📜 Sources (checked 25 September 2026)

💬 Check your own situation

Comments

Found this helpful?

⚖ Important — Please Read Before Continuing

1. This is guidance — and only ever guidance

2. AI can make mistakes

3. Verified figures and guidance sources

4. What happens to what you type

5. Your responsibility

6. Useful Official Resources

7. Scope of this service

Report an Issue

Share Your Feedback

Am I Entitled to a Care Needs Assessment in Northern Ireland?

Who this guide is for

What this guide does not cover

⚖ At a glance

The questions that decide the answer

"Can I get a care needs assessment?"

"I look after someone"

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

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

Deadlines

Where to go for help

Traps

📜 Sources (checked 25 September 2026)

💬 Check your own situation

Comments

Found this helpful?

⚖ Free Account — UK Work Rights