Eligibility

2.81 – Benefits – Carers Allowance – Eligibility

To qualify, carers must have all of the following apply to them:

• At least 35 hours per week is spent caring for someone;
• 16 years of age 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;
• Not subject to immigration control;
• Not in “full-time education” or studying for 21 hours per week or more. The meaning of “full-time education” is complicated and may depend on several factors including the type, of course, you are doing. Your course is likely to be considered ‘full-time’ if your university, school or college describe the course as fulltime (however some courses classed as “full-time” may not be classed as “full-time” by the Carer’s Allowance Unit if the supervised study required for the course is for less than 21 hours a week) or you are required to do 21 hours a week or more of study (even if your university, school or college does not describe your course as full-time). If you are said to be in full-time education you also won’t be able to get Carer’s Allowance during temporary absences from your course including holiday periods.
• Earnings are £128 per week or less after all of the tax and other expenses including National Insurance – this means that should you be working 16 hours at minimum wage and are eligible for the national living wage, you will be over the earnings limit. You will therefore need to find out if you can apply any of the deductions, outlined below, which would mean your earnings for Carer’s Allowance purposes would be treated as being £128 per week or less;
• At least two of the last three years have been spent in England, Scotland or Wales (though please note that this does not apply should humanitarian protection status have been achieved or are a refugee);
• Usually located in England, Scotland or Wales, though you may live abroad as a member of the armed forces – eligibility could still be accepted should you be moving to/already living in an EEA country or Switzerland.

You must provide 35 hours of care for every week you claim Carer’s Allowance. These 35 hours can be at any time of the day or night. For Carer’s Allowance, a week runs from Sunday to Saturday. Whilst you cannot average out your hours over several weeks, you are allowed certain breaks in care. Such a break can be taken for any reason for up to four weeks every 26 weeks whilst Carer’s Allowance is still paid. However, you must have been providing 35 hours of care or more per week for at least 22 of the past 26 weeks. Up to eight weeks of a stay in hospital for either you or the person you are looking after can be included in these 22 weeks.

Carer’s Allowance will also 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 have been caring for must have also received one of the qualifying benefits noted below for such periods. Carer’s Allowance will stop if your total breaks add up to more than 12 weeks in the past 26 weeks.

These 35 hours can include:

• time spent physically helping the person;
• time spent doing practical tasks for them – e.g. cooking;
• time taken doing practical tasks even without the presence of the person you are looking after may also count (for example, should you look after someone who regularly visits you for the care they need, time spent preparing for the visit or cleaning up afterwards);
• time spent ‘keeping an eye on the person – e.g. preventing them coming to harm by walking out of the house.

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 will need to decide between yourselves who would be best to make the claim. The other person should seek advice about the benefits they can receive – they may be able to claim ‘Carer’s Credit’ for the time they are caring. Should the person you are looking after also be caring for someone else, you can both claim Carer’s Allowance for looking after different people as long as you both meet the criteria. This also applies if you are caring for each other.

To satisfy the residence and presence tests you must be both habitually resident in the UK and ‘Present’ in Great Britain (which for this purpose also includes Northern Ireland) for 104 weeks out of the 156 weeks before claiming (two out of the last three years) ‘Present’ means physically present in the UK. Some people may be treated as being in the UK while abroad, such as members of the armed forces. Please note this requirement does not apply to people recognised as refugees and their families.

Special rules apply to countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) and several others with who Britain has agreements. If you think this applies to you, you should seek advice. The AIRE Centre can provide advice on individual rights in Europe and can be contacted on 020 7831 4276 or by email at info@airecentre.org.

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 precise legal definition of ‘habitual residence. Relevant factors include where you normally live, where you are expecting to live in future, your reasons for entering this country, the length of time which you spent abroad before you came here and any ties you still have with the country from which you came. You can continue to be paid Carer’s Allowance for a temporary period whilst you are abroad if you meet all of the following conditions:

• you are travelling with the person you are looking after;
• he/she continues to receive a qualifying disability benefit (likely to be a maximum of 26 weeks);
• 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 four weeks as long as you have not had more than four weeks break from caring in the last 26 weeks. You may have had up to a further eight 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 the hospital.
One of the following certain benefits must also be received by the person being cared for:

• Armed Forces Independence Payment;
• Attendance Allowance;
• Constant Attendance Allowance (at or above the normal maximum rate with an Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit);
• Constant Attendance Allowance (at the basic (full day) rate with a War Disablement Pension);
• Disability Living Allowance (at the middle or highest care rate);
• Personal Independence Payment (daily living component).

PLEASE NOTE that claiming Carer’s Allowance can affect not only the other benefits being received by the claimant but also those being received by the person being cared for as well. It is also only possible for one unpaid carer caring for an individual to claim Carer’s Allowance should more than one person be caring for the same individual. Unpaid carers are also unable to get extra if they care for more than one person. Furthermore, tax may need to be paid on it should one’s income become over the Personal Allowance.

For each week Carer’s Allowance is received, the unpaid carer will automatically get National Insurance credits and such credits can count towards state pension entitlement. Additionally, it may be that by claiming the benefit, access to other forms of financial support is unlocked.
GOV. The UK states that you may also be able to eligible for:

• A Council Tax Reduction;
• Grants and/or bursaries to help pay for courses and training;
• Income-based Employment and Support Allowance (should you receive the severe disability premium and are unable to work);
• Income Support (should you receive the severe disability premium and are on a low income);
• Pension Credit (should you be over the working age);
• Support from your local council;
• Universal Credit (should you be on a low income or are out of work);
• If you live in Scotland and get Carer’s Allowance, you may even be eligible to receive a ‘Carer’s Allowance Supplement. Two additional payments will be received on certain qualifying dates (each was £230.10 for 2020-21) from Social Security Scotland as long as you continue to qualify for Carer’s Allowance, the next of which is due in June. Eligible carers living in Scotland and receiving Carer’s Allowance on the qualifying date in April will be paid automatically, receiving a letter from Social Security Scotland – you do not need to do anything!

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed it has meant that unpaid carers would remain eligible to claim Carer’s Allowance even if they have had to temporarily cease in caring because either they or the person they care for has coronavirus, or if either has to isolate due to it. Providing emotional support will also continue to count towards the Carer’s Allowance threshold of 35 hours of care per week, the DWP added.

Change in your circumstances
If there is a change in your circumstances, it is important to report this as soon as possible to avoid any overpayment of benefit. You can report changes in circumstances by writing to or calling the Carer’s Allowance Unit (England, Wales and Scotland) – www.gov.uk/carers-allowance-unit, or the Disability and Carers Service (Northern Ireland) – www.nidirect.gov.uk/contacts/disability-and-carers-service.

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