Can a Trust Protect Your Home From Care Fees?

The short answer

You may put your home in a trust during your lifetime. That protects it from your own care fees only if the council accepts you did not do it to reduce them. If the council decides you did, it assesses you as if you still owned the home.

A trust in your will is different. It can protect your share of a home when you die first, so it is not counted for your partner's care. That is a smaller promise, but an honest one.

This guide explains the rules for England, with a note on Wales. It is general information, not advice on your own situation.

How care is paid for in England

If you need care, your council first assesses what care you need. If it arranges your care, it then looks at your money in a financial assessment, which is the means test.

The main capital limits are £23,250 and £14,250.

• Over the upper limit: you pay the full cost of your care yourself.
• Between the two: the council helps. You pay £1 a week for every £250 you have above the lower limit, plus a contribution from your income.
• Under the lower limit: your capital is not counted, but you still contribute from your income.

For care at home, councils can choose higher limits.

Source: Department of Health and Social Care, Care and support statutory guidance (chapter 8 and Annex B) (Updated 22 July 2025), checked October 2026.

When your home is counted

Your home is not counted if you receive care in your own home. It is also not counted if you move into a care home and a qualifying person still lives there. They must have lived there as their home since before you moved. The main qualifying people are:

• your partner, spouse or civil partner, unless you are estranged
• a relative who is 60 or over, or incapacitated
• your child under 18

Otherwise, the value of your home counts as capital once you move permanently into a care home. It is ignored for the first 12 weeks. The council can also choose to ignore it in other cases, for example where a carer who gave up their own home lives there.

If you meet the conditions, the council must offer a deferred payment agreement. The fees are then paid from the value of your home later, so you do not have to sell it during your lifetime.

Wales is different

In Wales, the capital limit for residential care is £50,000. The other rules also differ, so check with your council.

Source: Welsh Government, Charging for social care, checked October 2026.

There is no cap on care costs

A lifetime cap on care costs was planned for October 2025. The government cancelled it on 29 July 2024. No cap is in force in England.

Source: HM Treasury, Chancellor statement on public spending inheritance (29 July 2024), checked October 2026.

Deprivation of assets

Deprivation of assets means intentionally reducing what you own so that you pay less for your care, when you knew you needed care and support. You can spend your money as you wish. But if the council decides you have deprived yourself of an asset, it can treat you as if you still had it.

The council asks two questions. Was avoiding care fees a significant reason for the timing? And could you reasonably have expected to need care at the time?

The official guidance gives examples of how deprivation can happen. They include giving money away, transferring your home, and putting assets into a trust that cannot be revoked.

If the council decides you have deprived yourself:

• you are charged as if you still owned the asset
• the person who received it can be made to pay the council the difference, up to the value they received

There is no seven-year rule for care fees. The guidance does not set a time limit. What matters is why and when the gift was made.

Deprivation should not be assumed. The guidance says it would be unreasonable to find deprivation in one case. That is where, at the time, you were fit and healthy and could not have foreseen needing care.

Source: Department of Health and Social Care, Care and support statutory guidance, Annex E: Deprivation of assets (Updated 22 July 2025), checked October 2026.

Lifetime "asset protection trusts"

Some firms sell trusts that you set up now, during your lifetime, to protect your home from care fees. Before you sign up, it helps to know the risks.

• The council can treat it as deprivation of assets: the official guidance lists putting assets into a trust that cannot be revoked as an example.
• Inheritance tax: if you put your home in a trust but keep living there, it is a gift with reservation of benefit. It still counts as part of your estate for inheritance tax. Paying a full market rent can stop your living there counting. It does not help if you can still benefit from the trust another way, for example as one of its beneficiaries. A gift into most lifetime trusts is also taxed when you make it, on the amount above your available nil rate band. If the trustees pay, the rate is 20%. If you pay it yourself, the tax costs more: a quarter of the amount above the band that reaches the trust.
• You lose control: the home belongs to the trust. You may need the trustees' agreement to sell or move.
• Costs: there are set up costs, and there can be ongoing costs and tax returns.
• Other risks: family relationships change. Mortgages, other tax rules and selling the home can all become more complicated.

If you are offered one, ask who is advising you, whether they are regulated, and what happens if the council or HMRC challenges it.

Source: GOV.UK, Trusts and Inheritance Tax (Updated 6 April 2025), checked October 2026.

What a trust in your will can do

A will trust deals only with what you own when you die. For care fees, it matters mainly for couples.

Suppose you and your partner own your home as tenants in common, with half each. Your will can leave your half on a life interest trust. Your partner can live in the home for life. When they die, your half passes to your children.

When you die, your half passes under your will into the trust. Your partner never owned it, so it cannot be a deprivation of assets by your partner. They did not give anything away.

If your partner later needs care, the council assesses what your partner owns. Your half belongs to the trust, not to them. The value of your partner's right to the trust's income is ignored as capital. Income the trust actually pays them may count as income.

Source: Department of Health and Social Care, Care and support statutory guidance, Annex B: Treatment of capital (Updated 22 July 2025), checked October 2026.

You take both steps yourself, while you are alive:

• if you own your home as joint tenants, you sever the joint tenancy, so that you own your half as a tenant in common
• you make the will that leaves your half on the trust

Source: GOV.UK, Joint property ownership, checked October 2026.

The council may look at steps your partner takes themselves. Examples are your partner severing the joint tenancy, or not making an Inheritance Act claim after your death. Your partner should take advice before doing either.

An Inheritance Act claim asks the court for reasonable financial provision from an estate. C-PAID: help with inheritance disputes can connect your partner with specialist solicitors in England and Wales. Time limits can apply, so they should seek advice promptly.

This is ordinary will planning for couples, not a care fees scheme. Our guide to life interest trusts explains how they work.

What a will trust cannot do

• Protect your own assets during your life: if you need care, everything you own is assessed in the usual way.
• Protect your partner's own assets: their half of the home and their savings count for their care.
• Work if you still own your home as joint tenants when you die: your half then passes to your partner automatically, whatever your will says.
• Protect gifts your partner makes later: the deprivation of assets rules apply if your partner gives away their own assets to reduce their care fees.

Where to get advice

• Your council: ask for a needs assessment and a financial assessment, and about deferred payment agreements.
• Regulated financial advice: a financial adviser regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority can explain ways to fund care, such as care fees annuities.
• Free guidance: charities such as Age UK and Citizens Advice can explain the rules.
• A will trust: for a life interest trust in your will, talk to a firm regulated for legal work.

How GetWill handles this

A life interest trust needs advice before your will is drafted. With GetWill, it starts with a professional consultation.

If you and your partner are making mirror wills, you stay on the mirror will service and our team contacts you about the trust. If either of you lives outside the UK, you start with a professional consultation instead.

The consultation is £150, including VAT. It includes a legal professional’s review of your circumstances and advice on the will you need. Afterwards we send you a written fee estimate for your will. If you go ahead, the £150 is deducted from that price.

We do not sell lifetime asset protection trusts. Fifty Six Law reviews every will before it is finalised.

What to do next

• Check whether you own your home as joint tenants or tenants in common.
• Talk to your partner about what you each want for the survivor and your children.
• Consider Lasting Powers of Attorney, so someone you trust can deal with care decisions and money if you cannot.
• Start with a professional consultation
• Making mirror wills with your partner: start your mirror wills
• More about trusts: Trusts in Wills

Last checked against official sources on 14 October 2026.