Residential Care Costs

Unlocking Financial Assistance and Simplifying the Application Process

The cost of residential care can be daunting. We help you understand the subsidies and loans available and guide you through the application process, including a step-by-step guide to the Work and Income form below.

Find What You Need

Choose a topic to jump straight to it.

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Who Can Apply

Age rules, and subsidy or loan.
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Key Numbers

Asset limits and gifting limits for 2026.
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The Form, Step by Step

What to fill in, and what to leave to us.
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If You Have a Trust

Questions 53 to 56 and what Work and Income expects.
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Question 32

Which asset threshold to choose.
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Work and Income Pages

The official guidance, summarised.

Who Can Apply, and Your Options

Who can apply? (age rules)
  • Under 50: you do not qualify for the Residential Care Subsidy and will need to contact Health New Zealand directly.
  • Aged 50 to 64, single, no dependent children, and assessed as needing long-term residential care: you only pay an income contribution. Work and Income treats you as being at or below the asset limit, so there is no assets test, but there is an income test.
  • Under 65 with a partner: there is no income or assets test.
  • 65 and over: you can hold up to $300,811 in assets and still qualify (or $164,731 in some couple situations, where your home and car are left out). The limits are reviewed every 1 July.
Residential Care Subsidy

A payment from Work and Income directly to the rest home or hospital, covering some or all of the cost of care. The amount depends on your assets and income, so eligibility is means-tested.

Residential Care Loan

For people who own their home but have little cash. The loan is interest-free and is repaid when the home is sold or you pass away, so you can get care without selling your home straight away.

How the application works

Step 1: a Needs Assessment Service Coordinator (NASC) checks that you need rest home or hospital care. If you do, you are given an application form.

Step 2: you complete the form and provide documents about your assets, income and any trusts. A subsidy can only be backdated up to 90 days, so apply as soon as you can.

Key Numbers for 2026

Current from 1 July 2026 and reviewed every year.

Asset limit A: $300,811

Single, or both of you in care. Your home and car count if you own them personally.

Asset limit B: $164,731

Only where one partner is in care and the other stays at home. Your home and car are left out.

Gifting, last 5 years

Up to $8,500 a year (one total for a couple), and $42,500 over the five years including gifts in recognition of care.

Gifting, before 5 years

Up to $27,000 a year (one total for a couple). Amounts over this can be counted at Work and Income's discretion.

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Apply early. A subsidy can only be backdated up to 90 days from the date Work and Income receives your application. An incomplete form can be delayed or declined, leaving you to pay care fees until it is sorted.

How the gifting rules work

Gifts over the yearly limit in the last 5 years must be counted in your assessment. Gifts before that, over $27,000 a year, may be counted at Work and Income's discretion. A sale for less than market value is treated as a gift for the shortfall, and a sale in exchange for a debt means the debt owed to you counts as an asset. Gifts by a partner who has died are included.

Filling in the Form, Step by Step

Work through these in order. Questions 1 to 31 and 33 to 50 you can do yourself. Questions 32 and 54 to 56 are best done with us.

Step 1 – Gather your documents first (checklist, pages 30 and 31)

Work and Income lists exactly what it needs on the checklist at the back of the form. Collect these before you start:

  • Bank statements for the last three months, for every account (yours and your partner's)
  • Rates notice showing capital value, mortgage details and other housing costs
  • Proof of other assets and income, including interest rates
  • Proof of sale for any asset sold, gifted or transferred, including to a trust or family
  • Trust documents (deed, deeds of debt, gift statements, latest accounts)
  • Proof of any inheritance, business accounts, and any debt over $500
  • Enduring Power of Attorney documents, if someone acts for you

Save paper. Work and Income accepts documents by email. If you already have them electronically, don't print them. Email them to MSD_RCS@msd.govt.nz. You can also post them to Residential Subsidy Unit, Private Bag 9032, Whangārei 0148, or take them to any Work and Income office.

Step 2 – Your details: questions 1 to 31

Complete these yourself: your personal details, the care facility, and your partner's details. Use full legal names. Leave question 32 until the end.

Step 3 – Question 32: the asset threshold (leave until last)

This is the question clients most often get wrong, especially when a trust owns the home. Read How to Complete Question 32 below, or talk to us before you tick a box.

Step 4 – Home, money and property: questions 33 to 50

Complete these yourself. Questions 33 and 34 ask about an Occupation Right Agreement (ORA, for example a retirement village unit) and home ownership. The surrender value of an ORA is usually counted as an asset. Question 50 asks about assets sold in the last five years: include sales to a trust, family members, a business or a charity, and have the proof of sale ready (for example a solicitor's settlement statement).

Step 5 – Gifts: question 51

If you have a trust, write in the answer box: "Please see the attached details." We will help you prepare the attachment, because assets gifted to a trust are the most closely examined part of the form.

If you do not have a trust, complete the question yourself. List each gift, its value, the date and who received it, including gifts by a partner who has died. Proof of each gift is needed.

Step 6 – Gifts in recognition of care: question 52

Answer this yourself. It asks whether you received a high level of care from someone other than your partner or dependent child, and gifted something in recognition of it. Most people answer "No".

Step 7 – Trusts: questions 53 to 56

Question 53: if you or your partner (including a partner who has died) are involved in a trust, tick Yes and write the name of the trust, not the names of its trustees. If not, tick No.

Questions 54, 55 and 56: do not answer these until you have talked with us. If the trust has ever paid you income or other support, that must be disclosed. See what Work and Income expects.

Step 8 – Estates: questions 57 to 64

Complete these yourself. They ask whether you or your partner has been a beneficiary of an estate, or inherited in the last 10 years. If the inheritance was recent and more than modest, attach a copy of the Will and the latest estate accounts.

Step 9 – Debts: question 65

List all debts, including amounts you have borrowed from a trust. Work and Income requires a Deed of Loan to support a loan from a trust. If you don't have one, we can prepare it for you.

Step 10 – Business and remaining questions: 66 to 79

If you have a business, answer questions 66 to 71 and attach the complete set of recent business accounts. Everyone then answers questions 72 to 79.

Step 11 – Attorney pages, signature and checklist
  • Pages 24 and 25: complete only if your attorney (Power of Attorney) is completing the form. Page 25 is for your attorney to sign. Otherwise leave blank.
  • Pages 26 to 28: normally leave blank.
  • Page 29: the applicant signs here if able. Then complete the checklist at the end, initial any changes you made, and confirm the Needs Assessment certificate is done.
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Finish with us. We recommend meeting us, in person or by Zoom, to complete what you can't and to check everything before it goes to Work and Income.

If You Have a Trust: What Work and Income Asks and Expects

Questions 53 to 56 are the most important on the form for trust clients.

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The short version. If you are a beneficiary of a trust, Work and Income expects you to ask the trustees for help with your care costs, and to give it proof of their reply. Talk to us before you write to the trustees or answer questions 54 to 56.

What questions 53 to 56 are asking
  • Q53: are you or your partner (even a partner who has died) involved in a trust, or ever been? "Involved" includes setting one up, selling or gifting assets to it, making decisions for it, or benefitting from it.
  • Q54 and Q55: has the trust ever supported you, and how (regular payments, a lump sum, or free or subsidised accommodation)?
  • Q56: will the trust support you now, and if not, why not?
If you are a beneficiary: you are expected to ask the trust

Work and Income expects a beneficiary to ask the trust for support with care costs, whether or not any gifting has happened. The form says you must ask before they decide your application, and give them proof of the response, such as a letter from the trustees. Refusing to ask can itself be treated as deprivation.

If you are not a beneficiary

You have minimal rights to ask, so Work and Income cannot generally assume the trust has resources for you. However, if the trust has supported you in the past, it may expect you to ask again.

When Work and Income may look to the trust

Where gifting or selling above the allowed limits (deprivation) has been found, Work and Income may use its discretion to count the amount back in. Before it does, it considers whether you have other resources available. For a family trust it assumes resources are available unless there is evidence otherwise. If the trust declines, or offers what looks like too little, it will ask why and consider:

  • the trust's wealth and income
  • the number and needs of other beneficiaries
  • the terms of the trust deed
  • the history of support to you and other beneficiaries
  • the scale of the deprivation, and the reasons for the decision
Good reasons not to ask the trust

Work and Income accepts that it can be reasonable not to ask, for example where the trust has no resources, you have recently asked, or there has been a relationship breakdown with a trustee. Family members are not obliged to support you, so a refusal by family is not itself deprivation.

What happens if the trust pays something

Work and Income generally counts back only what is realistically available. If a trust makes a reasonable lump sum payment, that amount is counted and the rest is not. If it pays regular income, that income is assessed in place of the deprived asset. Any income you receive from a trust is included in your income assessment.

Gifts and sales to a trust (questions 50 and 51)

Assets sold or gifted to a trust are examined closely. Gifts over the allowed amounts in the last 5 years must be counted. Earlier gifts above $27,000 a year may be counted at Work and Income's discretion. A sale for less than market value is treated as a gift for the shortfall, and a sale in exchange for a debt means the debt owed to you counts as an asset. Bring the trust deed, the sale or transfer documents and valuations at the transfer date.

How to Complete Question 32: Which Asset Threshold Applies?

Work and Income sets a limit on the assets you can hold and still get the subsidy. Question 32 asks which limit you want used.

Threshold A: $300,811

Your countable assets, including your home and car if you own them personally, must be $300,811 or less.

Threshold B: $164,731

Your home and car are left out, but your other assets must be $164,731 or less. That is about $136,000 lower than A.

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The common mistake. A home owned by your family trust is not your home for this question. If a trust owns the home, you normally choose Threshold A. Choosing B would cut your limit by about $136,000 for no benefit.

Which box do I tick?
  • You are single, or both of you are in care: only Threshold A ($300,811) applies. If you own your home personally, it counts. If the home puts you over, ask us about a Residential Care Loan.
  • One of you is in care, the other stays at home, and you personally own the home: you normally choose Threshold B ($164,731). Your home and car are left out, and your other assets together must be $164,731 or less.
  • A trust owns the home: choose Threshold A ($300,811).
Examples in dollars

You own the home. One of you is in care and the other stays at home. Home worth $700,000, savings $120,000, car $18,000. Choose B: only the $120,000 is counted, which is under $164,731.

The trust owns the home. Savings, investments and car total $250,000. Choose A: $250,000 is under $300,811. Under B you would be $85,269 over the limit.

Single, you own the home. Home worth $700,000 and savings $50,000. Only A applies and the home counts, so you are over the limit. Ask us about a Residential Care Loan.

A trust owning the home is not the whole story

If you transferred the home or other assets to the trust, Work and Income will still look at when and how, under the gifting and sale rules (questions 50 and 51). Check with us before you tick a box.

Thresholds are published by Work and Income: current asset thresholds. This is general information, not legal advice.

Get Our Help

An incomplete or incorrect form can be delayed or declined. We can help with the tricky parts (trusts, property sales and gifting), make sure you have the right documents, and write to Work and Income to explain your situation.

How much will it cost?

Everyone's situation is different. We charge on a time basis for the time your application takes. Read our terms of engagement.