Care Homes: Allowances
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the personal expenses allowance for residents of care homes.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
The personal expenses allowance (PEA) sets the statutory minimum amount of income an individual residing in a care home must be left with after being charged for their care. These rates are reviewed annually, and local authorities also have the discretion to set higher rates where they choose.
The 2025 Local Authority Circular, published on 3 March 2025, sets out that the rates of the PEA will be uprated in line with consumer price index (CPI) inflation for 2025/2026, to £30.65 per week.
This aligns with the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget 2024 announcement that benefits will be uprated in line with CPI inflation.
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