The phrase “12-week disregard” refers to the time when a person first enters long-term residential care*. At this stage the relevant local authority will have to work out who will be funding that person's care.

Essentially, what they'll be doing is looking at a list of the assets owned by the resident and working out whether or not that total value is over £23,500. If the assets total over £23,500, the resident pays everything, if it is under the local authority will be paying some or all of the care costs.

Even if the resident’s assets total over £23,500, for the first 12 weeks the local authority cannot use their property in this calculation, it is disregarded. Essentially if it is the resident’s house which puts them over the financial threshold, their first 12 weeks of care will be paid for by the Local Authority. It must be noted however that all the resident’s income will go towards the cost of care.

After 12 weeks, the property will be added and as such its value will put it over £23,500, which means the resident is going to start paying for it.

*Nursing Home Care is initially assessed on the level of care required, if sufficiently high the resident might find the NHS fund their care. Failing that they will go through the same financial assessment as residential care home residents.