Care at home is charged differently from a care home place in one important way: your home itself is never part of the sum. This page sets out how a council decides what you pay for care at home in England, using the same capital limits as a care home but a different treatment of property, plus the income protections and disregards that apply only outside a care home.
The council can only charge after a financial assessment
A council may charge for care and support it arranges at home, but only after it has assessed your financial resources and worked out what you could reasonably be expected to pay (Care Act 2014, section 17, checked 1 November 2026). Charging itself is a choice the council makes, not an automatic consequence of receiving care.
Where a council does charge, a charge can only cover the actual cost it incurs in meeting your needs (Care Act 2014, section 14, checked 15 September 2026). The detailed rules on how the assessment works sit in the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, SI 2014/2672, checked 15 September 2026.
Your home is not counted for care at home
The value of your home is never part of a financial assessment for care and support you receive at home. The regulations’ capital disregards for a home’s value apply only where you are a “temporary resident” or “permanent resident,” and both terms are defined by reference to living in a care home (SI 2014/2672, checked 1 November 2026).
There is no separate rule stating the home is “disregarded” for home care, because it never needs one: the machinery that brings a home’s value into a financial assessment does not extend to care provided anywhere other than a care home. Our paying for care hub covers how the home is treated for a care home stay, where the position is different.
The 2026/27 capital limits and tariff income
Below £14,250 in capital, only your income is taken into account. The same national limits apply, but for care other than as a permanent resident in a care home, councils have discretion to set higher capital limits if they wish (2026/27 local authority circular, checked 1 November 2026). Above £23,250, you pay the full cost of your care.
Between the two limits, you contribute from income plus tariff income on your capital: £1 a week for every complete £250 above £14,250, up to £23,250 (SI 2014/2672, regulation 25, checked 1 November 2026). For a care home place these two limits are fixed; for care at home and other non-residential support, a council may set higher limits than £23,250 if it chooses, though never lower.
The Minimum Income Guarantee
Charging for care at home cannot take you below a set weekly income floor: the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG). For 2026/27, MIG for a single person who has reached Pension Credit age is £241.45 a week, and £184.30 each for a couple where one or both have reached that age (2026/27 local authority circular, checked 15 September 2026).
Lower figures apply below Pension Credit age, with disability, enhanced-disability and carer premiums on top where they apply, and a child premium for anyone with a dependent child. The circular sets these out in full, and rose by 7% for people below Pension Credit age and 3.8% for those at or above it for 2026/27.
Disability-related expenditure
Where a council counts a disability benefit such as Attendance Allowance or Personal Independence Payment as part of your income, it must then disregard your disability-related expenditure (DRE) from that income before charging you (SI 2014/2672, Schedule 1, paragraph 4, checked 1 November 2026).
This includes community alarm costs, privately arranged care or respite the council has not organised, and specialist items your disability requires. The statutory guidance gives a fuller, non-exhaustive list: special diets, extra clothing or bedding, above-average heating or water costs, help with the garden or cleaning, equipment, personal assistance, transport and internet access (Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex C, checked 15 September 2026). The guiding principle is that any reasonable additional cost directly related to your disability should be included.
How Attendance Allowance is treated
The statutory guidance’s explicit list of benefits a council must count as income, Attendance Allowance included, is set out for care homes (Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex C, checked 15 September 2026). Its section on other settings omits that list. This page applies the same income principle to care at home as an inference, not a stated rule.
Where you pay privately for day or night care that the council has not arranged, using Attendance Allowance or another disability benefit to fund it, that cost can be deducted as disability-related expenditure from the income the council otherwise counts (Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex C, checked 15 September 2026). Keeping a record of what you spend and when helps if this ever needs to be shown to the council.
Councils can charge less, or nothing at all
Charging for care at home is a power, not a duty, and a council can choose to charge less than the rules allow, or not at all (Care Act 2014, section 14, checked 15 September 2026). Some care must be free regardless of income, including reablement for up to six weeks and aids or minor adaptations costing £1,000 or less.
Ask your own council for its charging policy, since discretion above the mandatory-free list varies between areas.
Arranging your own care through the council
If your resources are above the financial limit, you can still ask the council to meet your needs, and for care of any type other than a care home placement, it must do so (Care Act 2014, section 18, checked 1 November 2026).
For a care home placement, the council may choose to meet your needs but is not required to (Care and support statutory guidance, paragraph 8.56, checked 1 November 2026).
You pay the full cost, but the council does the arranging. The council can charge an arrangement fee to cover the actual cost of putting your care in place, but the fee must reflect only its real costs, and it must not charge you for the financial assessment, the needs assessment or the care and support plan itself (Care and Support Statutory Guidance, chapter 8, checked 15 September 2026).
NHS Continuing Healthcare: a different route entirely
If your needs are found to be primarily health needs, the NHS funds your care in full, at home or in a care home, and none of the charging rules on this page apply. Our NHS continuing healthcare page covers the checklist, the assessment, and how to challenge a refusal.
There is no set national hourly rate
No government body sets a national hourly rate for home care in England. The NHS website gives a rough range instead: £15 to £30 an hour, which varies by area (NHS, page last reviewed 18 January 2024). It is a guide, not an official rate.
The closest official work, DHSC’s Fair Cost of Care exercise, collected local-authority-reported costs to help councils with local planning. It is not a published national rate, and no GOV.UK page states one.
What you can rely on instead is not a price but a process: the capital limits, the MIG, and the disregard for disability-related expenditure set out above decide what you are asked to pay, whatever a provider’s own hourly charge happens to be.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
If you live in Wales, non-residential care can cost up to £100 a week where you have a high level of disposable income and savings over £24,000, not counting your home’s value (gov.wales, Charging for social care, checked 1 November 2026), a different structure from the England rules above.
If you live in Scotland, charging for care at home runs under separate Scottish rules that this page does not set out; check with your local council or Social Security Scotland.
If you live in Northern Ireland, charging for care at home is set by your local Health and Social Care Trust under separate Northern Ireland rules that this page does not set out; check with your Trust or nidirect.