Will Lincolnshire County Council pay for care at home?

A great many families pay for care privately for months before discovering they never needed to, and a similar number assume the council will cover everything and are shaken when it does not. Both mistakes come from the same place: the system asks two questions, not one, and they are easy to run together. Here is how it works in Lincolnshire, in the order it actually happens.

Who decides whether the council pays?

Lincolnshire County Council decides, and it does so in two stages. First a needs assessment establishes whether your needs are eligible under the Care Act 2014. Then a financial assessment establishes how much, if anything, you contribute. Passing the first does not guarantee help with the second, and this is where most confusion begins.

The distinction matters because the two run on different logic. Needs are about what you cannot manage safely. Finances are about what you have. Someone can have very high needs and pay in full. Someone can have modest savings and still not qualify on needs.

How do you request a care needs assessment in Lincolnshire?

Call the Lincolnshire County Council Customer Service Centre on 01522 782155, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, or start it online through the council’s adult social care pages. You do not need a GP referral, you do not need to be in crisis, and it costs nothing.

You can request one for yourself or on behalf of someone else, though the person being assessed needs to agree unless they lack capacity to do so. Out of hours, for something that genuinely cannot wait until the next working day, the Emergency Duty Team is on 01522 782333 between 6pm and 8am.

1. Call the Customer Service Centre or complete the online form
2. An assessment is arranged, usually at home, and a family member can be present
3. You receive a written record of the outcome and what support is recommended
4. If needs are eligible, a financial assessment follows to work out contributions
5. A personal budget is agreed, and you choose how it is spent

What actually happens at the assessment?

A social care practitioner visits, usually at home, and works through how you manage ordinary daily life: washing, dressing, preparing food, moving around the house, managing medication, keeping the home habitable, and staying connected to people. They are looking for outcomes you cannot achieve without help, and the effect that has on your wellbeing.

The commonest mistake families make is understating things. People describe their best day, minimise how often they have fallen, and skip the part where a daughter drives over from Sleaford four evenings a week. Say all of it. The assessment can only work with what it is told, and unpaid family help that is quietly holding everything together is directly relevant to it.

If you are the one providing that help, ask for a carer’s assessment for yourself at the same time. It is a separate legal right, it looks at your own wellbeing rather than the person you care for, and it can lead to support in its own right. Very few people know to ask.

What savings thresholds apply?

In England the upper capital limit is £23,250 and the lower capital limit is £14,250. Above the upper limit you are expected to fund your own care. Below the lower limit your capital is disregarded entirely. Between the two, you contribute a tariff income of £1 a week for every £250 of capital above the lower limit.

These figures have not moved since 2010, which is worth sitting with for a moment. Sixteen consecutive years of freeze means more households cross the upper limit every year without their circumstances changing at all.

Is the value of my house counted?

Not for care in your own home. When the council assesses you for non-residential care, the property you live in is disregarded. It is counted in most cases where someone moves permanently into a care home, subject to a number of exemptions.

This single rule changes the arithmetic for a lot of families in Lincolnshire, where property values often sit well above the savings thresholds while actual savings do not. It is one of the practical reasons care at home can be affordable when residential care is not.

What does a financial assessment look at?

It looks at income and capital, and then leaves you with a protected amount. For non-residential care, the council must leave you with at least the Minimum Income Guarantee, a weekly sum set by government that is intended to cover ordinary living costs before any care charge is applied.

• Savings, investments and most property other than your main home
• Pensions, including state and private
• Most benefits, though some are partly or wholly disregarded
• Disability-related expenditure, which reduces what you are assessed to pay

That last point is routinely missed. If you spend money because of a disability, on extra laundry, incontinence products, specialist equipment, higher heating, you can ask for it to be taken into account. Bring the receipts. It reduces the assessed contribution.

What if you do not qualify?

The council still owes you information and advice, and it must give you a list of providers who can help privately. You are also entitled to ask the council to arrange the care for you even when you are paying for it yourself, which some families find easier than doing it cold.

The other route worth knowing is a direct payment, where a personal budget is paid to you rather than spent on your behalf, so the choice of provider stays yours. It is covered in more depth in our guide to direct payments.

When should you ask?

Earlier than feels necessary. Assessments take time to arrange, and the worst moment to start is the afternoon someone is being discharged from hospital. If you are reading this because things are gradually getting harder rather than because something has happened, that is exactly the right time to pick up the phone.

We are happy to talk through where you are likely to land before you speak to the council, and we will tell you honestly if we think you will qualify for support. We would rather you got the funding you are entitled to than paid us unnecessarily.