Section 55 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 makes provision for local authorities and residents in residential accommodation provided for or arranged by the local authority to enter into a deferred payment agreement, as defined in section 55(3). Briefly, the agreement allows a resident to defer part of the payment which he is liable to pay to the local authority (that is, his relevant contributions), and in return the resident will allow the local authority to secure payment of the total amount of relevant contributions by granting the local authority a charge in their favour on his home.

These Regulations set out how the relevant contributions are to be determined.