Cash for care benefits (CFC) are common to long-term care (LTC) reforms in Europe since the second half of the 20th century. This research explains how this policy change came about by looking at the mobilisation of organisations representing elderly and disabled people in England, The Netherlands and Austria. CFC benefits for care recipients were introduced as a result of the pressures by national disability movements advocating more choice and control over disabled people’s lives, coupled with governments’ interest in cutting (England) or containing (The Netherlands and Austria) costs in LTC. This work shows the limitations of power resources approach in explaining LTC policy change and makes a case for the adoption of a new-institutional approach to the study of change in LTC policy.