Partly — and Scotland is different from the rest of the UK. Personal and nursing care is free for everyone assessed as needing it, but the accommodation part of a care home is still charged and means-tested. This guide is the map, not a decision — confirm every current figure with your local council or Care Information Scotland.
Free personal and nursing care
If the council assesses the person as needing it, they receive fixed weekly payments towards personal care and, where relevant, nursing care — regardless of age, income or savings. These amounts are set nationally and updated each year, so ask the council for the current weekly rates. They reduce the bill but do not cover the whole cost of a care home.
The accommodation cost is still means-tested
The ‘hotel’ part — board and lodging — is charged, and the council applies a means test on capital against upper and lower thresholds, much like the rest of the UK. Above the upper limit you pay the accommodation cost yourself (less the free personal and nursing care payments); below it the council contributes more. Ask the council for the current thresholds before planning around them.
Does the house count?
The person’s home is usually counted as capital unless a spouse, partner or a qualifying relative still lives there, in which case it is disregarded. Scotland also allows arrangements to avoid selling the home in a hurry — ask the council about deferring the charge against the property.
If it’s urgent and the assessment isn’t done
A financial assessment takes time; a hospital discharge does not. Do both at once: ask for an urgent community care assessment and start the search now, using a self-funded place as a bridge if needed. Keep every invoice, and ask the hospital’s discharge team to help.
Mistakes that cost money
The three most common: assuming ‘free personal care’ means the whole care home is free (the accommodation cost remains); giving away savings or property to get under the threshold (treated as deliberate deprivation and counted anyway); and comparing homes on the headline fee without checking what the council and the free-care payments will actually cover. A tidy, up-to-date file always moves faster.
If the blockage is the paperwork — free personal care, the means test on accommodation, or the council’s contribution — or you simply don’t know which homes to ring first, Curalune Care Help prepares an ordered shortlist of 3–5 suitable care homes in Scotland, with contacts, useful links and a ready-to-send enquiry. It helps you organise the search; it does not replace the council’s assessment or guarantee a place, price or vacancy.
The starting point, already done
Finding suitable homes, checking they can meet the level of care and gathering the contacts takes days of phone calls. Curalune Care Help gives you that starting point: 3 to 5 suitable care homes within 24 business hours, with contacts, links and a ready-to-send message you can put to all of them at once. £69, one-off: if you don't receive at least 3 homes matching the area and criteria you gave us, we refund you in full. Start here
