Carer's Allowance

Carer's Allowance is the main benefit for carers. If you are looking after someone for 35 hours a week or more, you may be eligible.

• Download our factsheet on Carer's Allowance

You don't have to be related to or live with the person you care for.

Carer's Allowance (CA) is paid at £61.35 a week (2014/15 rate). The amount paid is usually increased each April.

Carer's Allowance is taxable. However, carers will only have to pay tax if they have other sources of taxable income such as an occupational pension or earnings. CA on its own is below the threshold for paying tax.

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

Can I get Carer's Allowance?

Not every carer can get CA. You may be eligible 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 a week.
• You are aged 16 or over.
• You are not in full-time education.
• You earn £102 a week (after deductions) or less.
• You satisfy UK presence and residence conditions.

Here is more information about each of the conditions.

You look after someone who gets one of the following qualifying disability benefits.

This includes:

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

You look after that person for at least 35 hours a week.

The 35 hours can include:

• time spent physically helping the person
• time you spend 'keeping an eye' on the person you look after, eg preventing them coming to harm by walking out of the house
• time spent doing practical tasks for them, eg cooking
• time taken doing practical tasks, even if you don't do them in the presence of the person you are looking after may also count
• (for instance, if you look after someone who visits you regularly for the care they need, time spent preparing for the visit or cleaning up afterwards should count)

Time spent travelling to and from the person you care for does not count.

You must provide 35 hours of care for every week you claim CA. For CA, 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 CA.

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 CA. You need to decide between you who should make the claim. The other person should seek advice about the benefits they can claim, and may be able to claim Carer's Credit for the time they are caring.

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

You are aged 16 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 years old.

You are not in full-time education.

The meaning of 'full-time education' 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 then contact the Carers UK Advicelinefor further advice.

CA is not paid during temporary absences from your course including holiday periods.

You earn £102 a week (after deductions) or less.

If you are in paid work (including self-employment) you cannot get CA if you earn more than £102 a week.

The following amounts are deducted from your gross weekly earnings before your earnings are taken into account for CA:

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

*For example, if you earn £110 per week (after tax and national insurance) you will not be entitled to Carer's Allowance. However, if you put £20 per week into a pension, half of the £20 can be deducted from your earnings. Your earnings for Carer's Allowance would therefore be £110 - £10 = £100 per week. As this is under the earnings limit you could claim Carer's Allowance.

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 or a child under 16 while you are at work you can 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 (a spouse, partner or civil partner, parent, son, daughter, brother or sister).

Occupational or personal pensions do not count as earnings and you can be paid CA in addition to these. However, if you get extra CA for your partner their occupational/personal pension could affect this extra amount.

Note: Some carers previously received extra benefit for their partner as part of their CA. This was called the adult dependant addition but is not available for new claims.

If you do receive taxable income such as occupational or private pensions or part-time earnings you should inform the tax office about your CA, because it is a taxable benefit.

You satisfy UK presence and residence conditions.

The presence and residence rules changed in April 2013 for new claimants. To satisfy the residence and presence tests you must now meet both the following conditions:

• 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).
• You must be habitually resident.

'Present' means physically present in the UK. 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 European Economic Area (EEA) and several others who Britain has agreements with. If you think this applies to you, you should seek advice.

The habitual residence test is a test to see if you normally live in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland or the Isle of Man. The test will be applied if you have been living abroad. There is no legal definition of 'habitual residence'. Relevant factors are where you normally live, where you expect to live in future, your reasons for coming to this country, the length of time spent abroad before you came here, and any ties you still have with the country where you have come from.

You cannot usually get CA 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 because a claim for CA could affect your future right to remain in the UK.

Note: You may be able to get free immigration advice from your local Law Centre. Alternatively, you can search for local legal aid immigration advice.