FAQ - Carer's Allowance

What is Carers Allowance?

Carer's Allowance is a non-contributory benefit in the United Kingdom payable to people who care for a disabled person for at least 35 hours a week.

How much is Carer's Allowance?

Carer’s Allowance is currently £67.60 a week.

Is Carer's Allowance means tested?

Carer’s Allowance is not means-tested – in other words not based on your income or savings. However, earnings may affect your entitlement. It is not based on your National Insurance record.

Is Carer's Allowance taxable?

Carer’s Allowance is taxable but, because it is a low amount, on it's own it is below the threshold for paying tax. So you will only have to pay tax if you have other sources of taxable income such as an occupational pension or earnings.

How do I apply for Carer's Allowance?

To get Carer’s Allowance you must meet all the following conditions:

• You look after someone who gets a qualifying disability benefit.
• You look after that person for at least 35 hours a week.
• You are aged 16 or over.
• You are not in full-time education.
• You earn £110 a week or less (after deductions).
• You satisfy UK presence and residence conditions.

What benefits must person I am caring for receive for me to receive Carer’s Allowance?

The person you care for must receive one of or a combination of the following benefits:

• Disability Living Allowance at either the middle or highest rate for personal care needs;
• The daily living component of Personal Independence Payment (at either rate);
• Attendance Allowance (at either rate); or
• Constant Attendance Allowance (of the normal maximum rate) paid with the Industrial Injuries or War Pensions schemes.

What counts as 35 hours a week of care?

The 35 hours of care can include time spent physically helping the person, time you spend ‘keeping an eye’ on the person you look after (such as preventing them coming to harm by wandering out of the house) and time spent doing practical tasks for them such as cooking.

The time you spend caring must usually be in the presence of the person you are looking after. However, if they come to visit you, the time you spend caring includes preparing for their visit on the day they arrive and clearing up after they leave. It also includes the time you spend collecting them from or taking them back to the place where they live.

You must provide 35 hours of care for every week you claim Carer’s Allowance . If your hours drop below this for whatever reason you may not be entitled.

For Carer’s Allowance, a week runs from Sunday to Saturday. You cannot average out your hours over a number of weeks. You cannot add together the time you spend caring for different people to make up the 35 hours. If you care for more than one person, you must choose which person you claim for, as you can only get one payment of Carer’s Allowance.

Similarly, if you share the caring role with another person, and you both provide at least 35 hours of care every week, only one of you can claim Carer’s Allowance. You need to decide between you who should make the claim. The other person should seek advice about the benefits they can claim.

However, if the person you care for is also caring for someone, you can both claim Carer’s Allowance as long as you both meet all the criteria. This also applies if you are caring for each other.

Do I have to be aged 16 or over to claim Carer’s Allowance?

Yes, Carer’s Allowance is a benefit for people who are 16 years old or over. You can make a claim up to three months before your 16th birthday although the benefit will only be paid from the day you become 16.

Can I claim Carer’s Allowance if I am in full time education?

No, you cannot claim Carer’s Allowance if you are in full time education.  However, the meaning of 'full time' is complicated and may depend on a number of factors including the type of course you are doing.  If you are studying or thinking about studying seek further advice. 

How do I calculate my weekly earnings for the purposes of claiming Carer’s Allowance?

If you are in paid work (including self employment) you cannot get Carer’s Allowance if you earn more than the earnings limit. At the moment this is £128 a week.

The following amounts are deducted from your gross weekly earnings before your earnings are taken into account for Carer’s Allowance:

• Income Tax;
• National Insurance;
• half your contributions towards an occupational/personal pension.

If you are self-employed, you can also first deduct expenses that are incurred ‘wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the business’, in the same way that you can for income tax purposes.

If you have to pay for someone to look after the person you care for whilst you are at work you can also deduct those payments from your earnings up to the value of half your earnings (after the above deductions if they apply).

However, this will not apply if the person you are paying is a close relative of either yourself or the person you care for if they are 16 or over. A "close relative" is a spouse, civil partner, partner, parent, son, daughter, brother or sister.

Occupational or personal pensions do not count as earnings and you can be paid Carer’s Allowance in addition to these. If you do receive taxable income such as occupational or private pension or part-time earnings, you should inform the tax office about your Carer's Allowance. This is because Carer's Allowance is a taxable benefit.

What are the UK presence and residence conditions for the purposes of claiming Carer’s Allowance?

The residence and presence rules changed from 8 April 2013 for new claimants. From that date to satisfy the residence and presence tests you must:

• Have been present in Great Britain for 104 weeks out of the 156 weeks before claiming (2 out of the last 3 years); and
• Be habitually resident.

Some people may be treated as being in the UK while abroad, eg members of the armed forces. Special rules apply to countries in the EC, and several others with whom Britain has agreements. If you think this applies to you, get advice.

You cannot usually get Carer’s Allowance if you have immigration restrictions on your stay in the UK (eg you are not allowed to claim public funds which include most welfare benefits and housing and homelessness services). If this is the case, seek advice before claiming as a claim for Carer’s Allowance could affect your future right to remain in the UK.

What benefits I receive prevent me from claiming Carer’s Allowance?

If you receive any of the following benefits, you are not able to claim Carer’s Allowance.

• Contributory Employment and Support Allowance,
• Incapacity Benefit,
• Maternity Allowance,
• Bereavement or widow’s benefits,
• Severe Disablement Allowance,
• Contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance,
• State Retirement Pension (see below).

However, if any of these are paid at less than the amount of Carer’s Allowance, you could be paid an amount of Carer’s Allowance on top of the other benefit you get. You will be paid the difference between your other benefit and Carer's Allowance.

Although in most cases you cannot be paid Carer’s Allowance if you get one of the benefits above, you will still have an ‘underlying entitlement’ to Carer’s Allowance if you meet all the conditions. This ‘underlying entitlement’ means that the carer premium or carer addition can be included in calculations for means-tested benefits.

Whilst there is no upper age limit for claiming Carer’s Allowance, payment of Carer’s Allowance usually stops when you reach retirement age because your State Retirement Pension will be paid instead. You will, however, have an ‘underlying entitlement’ to Carer’s Allowance which means you might qualify for the carer addition in your Pension Credit.

If your State Retirement Pension is less than the amount of Carer’s Allowance paid, you will continue to be paid an amount of Carer's Allowance to make up the difference.

Although you could ask to carry on being paid Carer’s Allowance instead of getting your State Retirement Pension straight away (ie you could defer your pension) you will not build up any extra pension during that time. It is always important to seek further advice before making any decisions.

How does my Carer’s Allowance claim affect the income of the person I am caring for?

If you claim Carer’s Allowance the amount of means-tested benefit paid to the person you look after can sometimes be reduced.

For example, a person living on their own (or treated as living alone), or a person who is one of a couple who live alone and both get a qualifying disability benefit, would get the severe disability premium. (It is called the severe disability addition when paid as part of Pension Credit).

The severe disability premium (or addition) can only be paid to someone if no-one gets Carer’s Allowance for looking after them, so once Carer’s Allowance is paid to their carer, the severe disability premium or addition can no longer be paid.

If a couple qualifies for the severe disability premium/addition, they will be getting a double rate. If someone starts to receive Carer's Allowance for caring for one of them, they will get a single rate of the premium/addition. If another person starts to receive Carer's Allowance for caring for the other member of the couple, they will lose the premium/addition altogether.

Please note that having underlying entitlement to Carer’s Allowance will not affect the benefits of the person you are looking after.

Can I take a break from caring and still receive Carer’s Allowance?

You can take a break from caring for up to 4 weeks in every 26 weeks and still be paid Carer’s Allowance. You must have been providing 35 hours or more of care a week for at least 22 of the past 26 weeks. The person you have been caring for must have been in receipt of a qualifying benefit for that period.

Carer’s Allowance will continue to be paid for up to 12 weeks if you go into hospital. You must have been providing 35 hours or more of care a week for at least 14 of the past 26 weeks. The person you care for must have been in receipt of a qualifying benefit for that period.

Note that Carer’s Allowance will stop if your total breaks add up to more than 12 weeks in the past 26 weeks (this will include any periods when you were in hospital).

Can I go abroad and claim Carer’s Allowance?

You can continue to be paid Carer’s Allowance for up to 26 weeks whilst you are abroad if:

• You go abroad with the person you look after, and
• he/she continues to receive a qualifying disability benefit, and
• the purpose of your trip is to look after them.

In any other circumstances you can continue to be paid Carer’s Allowance for up to 4 weeks as long as you have not had more than 4 weeks break from caring in the last 26 weeks. You may have had up to a further 8 weeks break from caring in the last 26 weeks if the reason for the break was because you or the person you care for were in hospital.

If you are going abroad to another country in Europe, special rules may apply which may mean you can continue to be paid Carer's Allowance for longer.

If the person you look after goes into hospital, you can continue to get Carer’s Allowance for up to 12 weeks or until their disability benefit stops. The disability benefit will stop after:

• 4 weeks in a NHS hospital if the person you look after is age 16 or over or
• 12 weeks in a NHS hospital if the person is aged under 16.

What is the Carer's Premium?

The carer premium or addition can continue to be paid for a further 8 weeks after your Carer’s Allowance stops.

The carer premium is an extra amount of money included in the calculation of Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Council Tax Reduction (Rate Rebate in Northern Ireland) and Housing Benefit.

The carer addition is an equivalent amount paid with Pension Credit.

The carer premium and carer addition are both worth £33.30 from April 2013.

If you can’t get Carer’s Allowance because you are being paid another benefit that overlaps with it, you can still get the carer premium or addition if you have an ‘underlying entitlement’ to Carer’s Allowance. An ‘underlying entitlement’ means that you meet all the criteria for Carer’s Allowance but can’t be paid it. To be given ‘underlying entitlement’, you must still make a claim for Carer’s Allowance.

How does Carer’s Allowance work with Universal Credit?

Under Universal Credit, there is a ‘carer element’ which you can get included in your Universal Credit claim if you care for a severely disabled person for at least 35 hours a week. An ‘element’ is an additional amount of money included in your Universal Credit calculation similar to the carer premium in Income Support or the carer addition in Pension Credit. You will get the carer element if you meet all the following conditions:

• You look after someone who gets a qualifying disability benefit.
• You look after that person for at least 35 hours per week.
• You are aged 16 or over.
• You are not in full-time education.
• You satisfy UK presence and residence conditions.

If you satisfy the conditions for claiming Carers Allowance or would do so but for the fact that your earnings are more than £100 a week (after deductions – see here) you will be considered to be caring for a severely disabled person and will therefore have the carers element included in your Universal Credit award. You do not have to claim Carer’s Allowance to get this element.

If you are making a joint claim for Universal Credit, you and your partner/spouse can each get a carer element in your Universal Credit claim if you both qualify for it, but only if you are caring for different severely disabled people.

How do I claim the carer premium, addition or element?

If you already get Universal Credit, Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction Scheme (which has replaced Council Tax Benefit) or Universal Credit, let the relevant department know that you have been awarded Carer’s Allowance (or have underlying entitlement) – their contact details should be on any letters they have sent you. The carer premium, addition or element should then be added.

To make a new claim:

• For Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, call the Jobcentre Plus contact centre on 0800 055 6688.
• For Universal Credit, you will be able to apply online at www.gov.uk. Universal Credit is being gradually introduced throughout the UK from October 2013. If you are unsure whether you should be claiming one of the benefits above or Universal Credit contact the Jobcentre Plus contact centre on 0800 055 6688.
• For Pension Credit, call the Pension Service on 0800 99 1234 (0808 100 6165 in Northern Ireland).
• For Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction Scheme, contact your local authority.

All of these claims should include a question about whether you get Carer’s Allowance. 

How do I backdate a Carer’s Allowance payment or claim?

Income Support can only usually be backdated for up to one month in certain circumstances, or up to three months in some cases. However, if you are already getting Income Support, the carer premium can be backdated to when your Carer’s Allowance begins, or to when your Income Support started if this is later.

Pension Credit can be backdated for three months. Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction (or Rate Rebate) can be backdated for up to 3 months in some circumstances or 6 months in some cases. However, if you are already getting one of these benefits, the carer premium or addition can be backdated to when your Carer’s Allowance begins, or to when your other benefit started if this is later.