How we check our facts
Every figure on this site comes from an official or specialist source, and we record the date we last checked it. Rules change; the Autumn Budget is on 28 October 2026 and pensions join estates on 6 April 2027. When a rule changes, the figures change the same week and this page says so.
| What | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Care means test limits (£23,250 and £14,250), 12-week disregard, who keeps the home out of the assessment | Care and Support Statutory Guidance; Age UK factsheets 38 and 40 | Sep 2026 |
| Scotland: care means test limits £36,750 and £22,750 from 6 April 2026, with £1 a week for every £250 between them | Scottish Government, Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance (Circular CCD 1/2026) | Oct 2026 |
| Wales: one care home savings limit of £50,000 | Care and Support (Charging) (Wales) Regulations 2015, regulation 11 | Oct 2026 |
| Personal expenses allowance £31.80 a week (England), £37.65 (Scotland); minimum income amount £46.35 (Wales), from April 2026 | DHSC charging circular 2026-27; Scottish CRAG 2026; Welsh SI 2026/22 | Oct 2026 |
| Deferred payment agreement interest (at most 4.65% from 1 July 2026, the national maximum, reset each 1 January and 1 July) and council fees | Central Bedfordshire Council, deferred payments (with Leeds and Reading for fees) | Oct 2026 |
| How the means test values a home: 90% of its value, as 10% comes off for the costs of a sale, less any mortgage or other debt secured on it. Savings in a bank count in full | Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex B para 14; Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance (Scotland) 06014; Care and Support (Financial Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2015, reg 20 | Oct 2026 |
| Deferred payment equity limit, England: 90% of the home's value less £14,250, which the deferred fees, interest and costs must stay within | Care and Support (Deferred Payment) Regulations 2014, regulation 5 | Oct 2026 |
| Scotland: free personal care £260.30 and nursing care £117.10 a week; councils may offer a deferred payment, with no interest until 56 days after death | Scottish Government; Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 s.6 | Oct 2026 |
| Care home fees for self-funders, one average for each nation: £1,302 a week in England, £1,539 in Scotland and £1,156 in Wales; with nursing, £1,558, £1,646 and £1,394. Average council rates in England, £908 and £1,225 (2024-25) | carehome.co.uk, data collected 9 September 2025 (Wales with nursing: 2 June 2025); LaingBuisson council rates | Oct 2026 |
| How long care costs are worked out for: 2.2 years, the average stay (801 days) of 11,565 care home residents; half had died within 462 days | Forder and Fernández, Length of stay in care homes, PSSRU discussion paper 2769 (LSE, 2011) | Oct 2026 |
| About half of care home enquiries are for care needed within a month (52%); six in ten are made for a parent | carehome.co.uk, Ageing Britain report | Jan 2026 |
| NHS funded nursing care rate in England (£267.68 a week). Wales sets its own rate, not yet published for 2026-27 | NHS England, 2026-27 rate; Welsh Government | Oct 2026 |
| Inheritance tax bands (£325,000 and £175,000), taper, rates, gift rules; the whole residence band passing from a spouse who died before 6 April 2017 | GOV.UK inheritance tax pages; IHTA 1984 s.8E; HMRC manual IHTM46040 | Oct 2026 |
| Pensions counted in estates from 6 April 2027; who pays, and what the scheme can hold back; after a death at 75 or over, income tax on what is drawn (at the 20% basic rate in our figures), less the part matched by inheritance tax | HMRC technical notes 1 (May 2026) and 2 (Aug 2026); Finance Act 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| About one in five pensioner households (20.3%) would owe inheritance tax if they died in April 2027; a measure of exposure, not a forecast | Tax Policy Associates | Sep 2026 |
| Bands frozen to April 2031 | Autumn Budget 2025 | Nov 2025 |
| Lasting power of attorney fee (£92), signing order, rejection causes; registration in 8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes | GOV.UK; Office of the Public Guardian annual report 2025-26 | Oct 2026 |
| Intestacy, England and Wales: a spouse's statutory legacy of £322,000 and half the rest when there are children or grandchildren, and everything when there are none; unmarried partners inherit nothing | GOV.UK intestacy rules | Oct 2026 |
| Scotland, no will: a husband, wife or civil partner's prior rights to the home up to £473,000, furniture up to £29,000 and £50,000 in cash (£89,000 with no children); everything when there are no children or grandchildren | Prior Rights of Surviving Spouse and Civil Partner (Scotland) Order 2011; Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Act 2024 s.77 | Oct 2026 |
| Scotland: £99 to register a continuing, welfare or combined power of attorney (£102 from 1 April 2027) | Adults with Incapacity (Public Guardian's Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Without a will, a stepchild who was not adopted inherits nothing; an adopted child counts as the adopter's own | Administration of Estates Act 1925 s.46; Adoption and Children Act 2002 s.67 | Oct 2026 |
| With no husband, wife or civil partner, the children share everything equally, and a grandchild takes the share of a child who has died | Administration of Estates Act 1925 ss.46 and 47 | Oct 2026 |
| With no husband, wife, civil partner or children: parents; then brothers and sisters of the whole blood or their children; then half-brothers and half-sisters, grandparents, uncles and aunts; then the Crown | Administration of Estates Act 1925 s.46 | Oct 2026 |
| Marrying or forming a civil partnership usually cancels an earlier will, unless it was made expecting that marriage | Wills Act 1837 s.18; GOV.UK: making a will, updating it | Oct 2026 |
| Divorce or dissolution makes a will take effect as if the former husband, wife or civil partner had died on that date; it does not change a pension nomination form | Wills Act 1837 s.18A | Oct 2026 |
| After a divorce or dissolution, gifts to the former husband, wife or civil partner, and their appointment as executor, fail | Wills Act 1837 s.18A | Oct 2026 |
| A house owned as joint tenants passes to the survivor whatever the will says | GOV.UK: joint property ownership | Oct 2026 |
| Stepchildren count as direct descendants for the residence nil-rate band | Inheritance Tax Act 1984 s.8K | Oct 2026 |
| Giving away the house or savings to avoid care fees can be treated as still yours, with no time limit (deprivation of assets) | Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex E | Oct 2026 |
| A promise of an inheritance that someone relied on can be enforced by a court | Guest v Guest [2022] UKSC 27 | Oct 2026 |
| Common law marriage has no legal meaning; a partner who lived with the person for the two years before the death, a spouse, a child or a dependant can ask a court for provision from the estate | Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 s.1 | Oct 2026 |
| Court of Protection deputy application fee (£432), a new deputy's assessment fee (£100), hearing fee, and yearly supervision (£320, or £35 for minimal supervision) | GOV.UK: become a deputy, fees | Oct 2026 |
| Will signing rules: two adult witnesses present together; video witnessing ended | GOV.UK: making a will; Wills Act 1837 s.9 | Sep 2026 |
| Will prices: online £99 to £150; at a solicitor from £150, and £328 on average paid to a lawyer (May 2025 survey) | Which?; Co-op Legal Services price pages | Oct 2026 |
| A will with a life interest trust (the trust that lets a partner stay in the house while the children inherit) at a solicitor: £1,194 (£995 plus VAT); a basic will £1,020 (£850 plus VAT) | Peacock Law wills fee schedule 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| A will with a life interest trust from £1,194 (£995 plus VAT) | Eric Robinson Solicitors: wills and powers of attorney prices | Oct 2026 |
| A solicitor typically charges £500 to £800 to prepare a lasting power of attorney; form checking £99 to £150 | Which? | Oct 2026 |
| Solicitors' hourly rates outside London: £142 (trainee) to £295 (senior solicitor) | GOV.UK solicitors' guideline hourly rates, from 1 January 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Lifetime mortgage rates and loan-to-value by age | Equity Release Council statistics; rate tables published by brokers | Sep 2026 |
| Stamp duty bands, England and Northern Ireland | GOV.UK | Oct 2026 |
| Rent a Room relief: up to £7,500 a year from a lodger free of tax (£3,750 if the income is shared) | GOV.UK: the Rent a Room Scheme | Oct 2026 |
| Land Transaction Tax bands, Wales | Welsh Government | Oct 2026 |
| Land and Buildings Transaction Tax bands, Scotland | Revenue Scotland | Oct 2026 |
| Trust mis-selling: of over 100 specialist lawyers surveyed, 95% had met clients mis-sold asset protection schemes, and 90% said unregulated firms were behind them; most paid £3,000 to £5,000 | Association of Lifetime Lawyers, Trust or Trap? The hidden dangers of asset protection trusts | Oct 2026 |
| From 6 April 2027, about 38,500 estates will pay more inheritance tax and about 10,500 will owe it for the first time, once unused pensions count | HMRC tax information and impact note: Inheritance Tax, unused pension funds and death benefits | Nov 2025 |
| 27% of over-55s have no will | Canada Life research (Opinium) | Oct 2025 |
| Inheritance tax receipts were £8.5 billion in 2025 to 2026, up from £3.5 billion in 2006 to 2007 | HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK, annual bulletin | Oct 2026 |
| 56% of UK adults do not have a will | Money and Pensions Service, press release, January 2025 | Oct 2026 |
| 3.5 million cohabiting couple families in the UK in 2024 (17.7% of all families) | ONS, Families and households in the UK: 2024 | Oct 2026 |
| 78% of people aged 40 or over have no power of attorney; 17% have one | Canada Life research by Opinium, 2,000 UK adults, March 2025 | Aug 2025 |
| Care costs the top worry of over-55s about passing on assets | Mattioli Woods and YouGov, 2,174 adults | Jun 2026 |
What the free check assumes
The check asks for bands, not exact figures, so some things are assumptions rather than facts. The answer and the emailed report say which were used.
- Each band counts as one figure inside it, for example £700,000 for a house worth “£500,000 to £1 million”.
- “Not sure” on pensions counts as a £50,000 pot. Only the inheritance tax check asks about pensions: the others count none, and say so.
- “Not sure” on the house counts as £265,000, the figure for “£200,000 to £325,000”.
- “Rather not say” on savings counts as the band just over the care savings limit, or the first band where a household has none, and the answer says which figure was used. On the will check it counts as £50,000.
- The age bands count as 50, 60, 70 and 80. For a couple, the check asks for the younger.
- The check does not ask whose name the house is in. An unmarried couple are taken to own it half each, and the answer gives the tax if it is in one name; one person on their own is taken to own all of it.
- Where someone other than a partner lives there and the check did not ask who, nobody is taken to keep the house out of the care means test.
- The will check is for England and Wales, and does not ask where the house is: its care figures, in the emailed report, use England’s rules.
- Someone in care has £260 a week of pension and benefits. The check does not ask.
- A stay in a care home lasts 2.2 years, the average in the study above.
- There is no mortgage or equity release, and a house shared with someone other than a partner is counted whole.
- An unmarried couple are not asked about a late husband, wife or civil partner, so neither is given an allowance passed on from one.
- Yes to a late husband, wife or civil partner counts as one who left everything to the owner, so all of their unused allowance passes on.
What we do not do
- We do not use invented statistics, invented reviews or stock quotes presented as customers.
- We do not name a product or a provider, and we do not recommend one. Only a regulated adviser or a solicitor can.
- We do not sell, arrange or refer for lifetime “asset protection” trusts.
Spotted something out of date? Email us and we will check it within two working days.