Planning for April's National Living Wage rise
What will next April's wage floor rise add to our costs, and what fee rise covers it?
Turn the expected wage floor into a cost per resident, then into the fee rise you need.
When people use it: From the Autumn Budget, when the new rate is announced, until April.
How it works, step by step
Model next April
Set Pay growth to the expected rise; the April step in cost a day is what it adds. Try the low and high ends of the expected range.
What the council is likely to pay
Compare past council rises with past wage floor rises: has the council kept up?
The views you will use
Ask the data in plain English
A real question and answer from Ask Orrery, the assistant inside the platform, for a care home owner in Kent (October 2026). It answers only from Orrery's data and the subscriber's own documents, and shows its sources.
A typical 60 bed Kent care home would see staff costs rise by about £3 to £6.50 per resident per day from April 2027. That is roughly £1,100 to £2,350 per resident a year.
- Pay range: The Low Pay Commission projects the National Living Wage at £13.02 to £13.34, up from £12.71. That is about 2.4% to 5.0%. It is a projection, not yet confirmed.
- Cost model: Staff costs are £2.48m a year now. They rise to £2.54m at 2.4% pay growth and £2.61m at 5.0% (Orrery cost model, Kent inputs). My per resident figures divide that rise by the home's resident days, a calculation of my own.
- Assumption: The model applies the rise to the whole pay bill, so it is an upper estimate.
The Kent report notes no general uplift for older people's homes in 2026/27 (Kent Care Market Report). Council-funded residents will absorb the rise unless fees move.
This is a projection on stated assumptions, not a forecast or advice.
- Staff are around four fifths of running costs, so the wage floor sets most of next year's cost rise.
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