Home › Get Help › Adult Support › Financial assessment

Adult social care

Financial assessments and LD social workers

What the council assesses, what money it can look at, what it must leave you with, and why a care contribution is not the same thing as “taking your benefits”.

See the human. Change everything.

This is not the same as a benefits assessment

DWP benefits such as PIP, ESA and Universal Credit are covered in the Awareverse Benefits Assessment Guide. This page is about the separate council process used to work out adult social care support and charges.

First: the care needs assessment

Before the council works out what someone may have to pay, it needs to understand what care and support the person actually needs. A needs assessment looks at the person's day-to-day life, the outcomes they want, what they can do themselves, what support is already available, and how their needs affect wellbeing.

You do not need to be rich or poor to ask for a needs assessment.
The council should assess the person's needs before deciding what support is eligible.
Finances are considered separately when the council is deciding what the person can afford to contribute.

What does an LD social worker do?

“LD” normally means Learning Disability. Team names vary by area, and some councils combine learning disability, autism or broader adult disability teams.

A social worker may help with assessment, care planning, reviews, safeguarding, transition from children's services, supported living, direct payments, capacity issues and coordination with health or other services. Having a social worker does not mean someone has done anything wrong.

The financial assessment in plain English

Once the council is arranging chargeable adult social care, it can carry out a financial assessment to work out what the person can afford to pay.

Money the council is allowed to count − protected income the person must keep − eligible housing costs not already covered − accepted disability-related expenditure = amount that may be available towards the care charge

Counted does not mean taken

If a benefit is included in the assessment, that does not mean the council simply takes that benefit. The council still has to apply the charging rules, protected income and relevant disregards.

Which income can be looked at?

The statutory guidance lets councils take most benefits into account unless a rule says they must be disregarded. The exact treatment can depend on the person's circumstances and the type of care.

Money	General treatment for adult social care charging
Universal Credit	Most relevant UC income can be taken into account. Housing costs and other protected amounts still have to be dealt with properly in the affordability calculation.
ESA	Usually taken into account.
PIP daily living	Can be taken into account, but disability-related costs that the council is not meeting must also be considered.
PIP mobility	Must be disregarded.
DLA care	Can be taken into account.
DLA mobility	Must be disregarded.
Earnings from employment	Must be disregarded.
Most pension income	Usually taken into account, with specific rules and disregards in some circumstances.

The Minimum Income Guarantee

For care outside a care home, such as care at home or supported living, the council must not reduce the person's income below the applicable Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG). The MIG is a protected weekly amount for basic living costs. Councils can choose to protect more than the statutory minimum.

For 2026/27 in England, examples of the statutory amounts include:

Circumstance	Weekly amount
Single, age 18 to under 25	£95.40
Single, age 25 to below Pension Credit age	£120.40
Single, Pension Credit age	£241.45
Disability premium, where applicable to a single person	£51.55
Enhanced disability premium, where applicable to a single person	£25.15

Those figures are not one flat rate for everybody. Age, household circumstances and applicable premiums matter.

A simple £150-a-week example

Imagine Sam is 35, single, lives in their own home and receives council-arranged support. After applying the relevant benefit rules, the council identifies £430 a week of assessable income.

For this example only, Sam's protected MIG is £197.10 because the base amount plus both disability additions apply. Sam also has £40 of eligible housing costs not already covered and £42.90 of accepted disability-related expenditure.

£430.00 assessable income − £197.10 protected income − £40.00 eligible housing costs − £42.90 accepted disability-related costs = £150.00

So £150 is the amount left in this simplified example that could be available as a weekly care contribution. It is not a statement that Sam “gets £150”, and it does not mean the council has simply taken Sam's PIP, ESA or Universal Credit.

A council may operate a more generous charging policy, and nobody should be charged more than the actual cost of the care being provided.

Disability-related expenditure can matter a lot

Where disability benefits are being taken into account, the council should also make sure the person keeps enough to meet disability-related costs that are not being met by the council. Examples can include additional heating, specialist laundry, extra bedding, disability equipment, cleaning or gardening made necessary by disability, special diets and some transport costs.

Do not assume the council already knows about these costs. Ask how to submit disability-related expenditure and keep evidence where possible.

Savings and capital: 2026/27

Capital	What the standard rules mean
Below £14,250	No tariff income is added from capital. A contribution from assessable income may still apply.
£14,250 to £23,250	Tariff income is added at £1 a week for every £250, or part of £250, above £14,250.
Above £23,250	The person will normally be expected to meet the full cost under the standard capital rules. For non-residential care, councils can use more generous capital limits.

If the person receives care outside a care home, the value of the home they occupy as their main or only home must be excluded from the capital assessment.

If the assessment looks wrong

Ask for the full financial assessment calculation in writing.
Check which income has been counted and which disregards have been applied.
Check the MIG figure used for the person's actual circumstances.
Ask how disability-related expenditure was considered.
Ask for a review if something has been missed.
If needed, use the council's adult social care complaints process and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman route.

Related Awareverse pages

Benefits Assessment Guide · Bills & Money Planner · Care Act request templates · Direct Payments & Personal Budgets · Complaints guide

Official sources used for this page

Rules can change. These links are included so you can check the current official position.

England. Figures reviewed against the 2026/27 charging circular on 21 September 2026.