{{Short description|UK social security benefit for carers}} {{Cleanup|reason=Out of date and Scotland have changed policy|date=November 2024}} {{Use British English|date=April 2020}}
'''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. It was first established as Invalid Care Allowance in 1976, and married women were not eligible.<ref name="o864">{{cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Steven |date=2026-02-09 |title=Carer's Allowance |url=https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn00846/ |access-date=2026-02-10 |website=House of Commons Library}}</ref> This policy was held to be unlawful sexual discrimination by the European Court in 1986 in the case of Jackie Drake.<ref>{{cite web|title=Our history |url=http://www.carersuk.org/about-carersuk/who-we-are/our-history |publisher=Carers UK |accessdate=19 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140420035254/http://www.carersuk.org/about-carersuk/who-we-are/our-history |archivedate=20 April 2014 }}</ref> In May 2020 around 1.1 million people in England were entitled to Carer’s Allowance, of which 780,000 people were being paid it, according to the National Audit Office.<ref>{{cite news |title=The adult social care market in England |url=https://www.nao.org.uk/report/adult-social-care-markets/ |access-date=24 April 2021 |publisher=National Audit Office |date=22 March 2021}}</ref>
==History== Invalid Care Allowance was initially introduced in 1976, after the publication of the government White paper Social Security Provision for Chronically Sick and Disabled People, which was published in 1974. The paper made a case for the provision of a benefit for carers of disabled people.<ref name="o864" /> The benefit is intended to be an income replacement for people who forgo other earnings due to their role providing substantial care for someone. Claimants don't need to contribute to be eligible and the benefit has never been fully means tested, unlike benefits like Universal Credit. Claimants are allowed to work alongside their carer role, but may lose their entitlement to Carer's Allowance if they go over a defined threshold.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Sainsbury |first=Roy |title=Disabled people and carers |date=2018-04-30 |work=Understanding social security |pages=59–78 |editor-last=Millar |editor-first=Jane |url=https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/book/9781447339489/ch004.xml |access-date=2026-02-10 |publisher=Policy Press |doi=10.51952/9781447339489.ch004 |isbn=978-1-4473-3948-9 |editor2-last=Sainsbury |editor2-first=Roy}}</ref>
Initially, only single men or women could claim the benefit if they cared for someone who was their relative. In 1981, the entitlement was expanded to cover non-relatives.<ref name=":0" /> However, married women were unable to claim the benefit until 1986.<ref name="o864" />
The change in eligibly was made after Jacqueline Drake began a legal case against the UK Government. Drake was a married woman who had given up paid work in order to care for her mother, who had dementia. Her claim was refused due to her marital status and she challenged the refusal through a legal case at the European Court of Justice.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Gulland |first=Jackie |date=11 January 2023 |title=How does Carer’s Allowance in the UK construct family carers? History and recent developments |url=https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/ijcc/8/1/article-p98.xml |url-status=live |access-date=2026-02-10 |website=bristoluniversitypressdigital.com |doi=10.1332/239788221X16716339335353}}</ref> The court ruled that excluding married women was contrary to the principles of equality that social security aimed to provide.<ref>{{Citation |title=Jacqueline Drake v Chief Adjudication Officer |date=24 June 1986 |issue=Case 150/85 |url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:61985CJ0150 |access-date=2026-02-10 |language=en}}</ref> Following the expansion, the number of claims expanded from 20,000 to 110,000.<ref name=":1" /> In 2023, 73% of Carer's Allowance claimants were women.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walker |first=Rachael |date=2024-06-11 |title=Carer’s Allowance: We can, and should, care more about carers |url=https://policyinpractice.co.uk.cdn.cloudflare.net/blog/carers-allowance-we-can-and-should-care-more-about-carers/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |website=Policy in Practice |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Invalid Care Allowance was renamed to Carer's Allowance in 2003.<ref name=":1" /> The change was made following a policy review in 1999. The change also implemented eight weeks of payments for claimants following the death of the person they cared for.<ref name=":0" />
==Conditions==
To be eligible for Carer's Allowance, the claimant must be caring for at least 35 hours per week for a disabled person who is in receipt of one of the below: *Disability Living Allowance (middle or higher rate of the care component) *Attendance Allowance *Constant Attendance Allowance *Personal Independence Payment (daily living component) *Armed Forces Independence Payment
The claimant must have been present in Great Britain for 104 weeks out of the 156 weeks before claiming (two out of the last three years) and pass the habitual residence test.
The claimant must be over 16 years of age.
===Excluded groups===
People in full-time education and those who earn more than £196 per week, from employment or self-employment, are not entitled to Carer's Allowance. Net earnings are used (after tax, National Insurance Contributions and allowable expenses including half of any pension contributions, work-related expenses such as the cost of a lease car, and up to 100% of care costs). Income from occupational pensions and investment income is not considered as earned income, and is not included.
==Amount==
£83.30 per week from April 2025 to April 2026. It is taxable and counts as earned income.
==Scotland==
As of September 2018, the Scottish Government's social security agency, Social Security Scotland, makes extra payments to Scottish residents who are in receipt of Carer's Allowance on specific "qualifying dates," known as the Carer's Allowance Supplement. This payment is paid twice a year and does not need to be applied for. The first payment was £221.<ref name="i139">{{cite web | title=Update: Carers Allowance top-up payments for carers | website=VOCAL - Voice of Carers Across Lothian | date=28 August 2018 | url=https://www.vocal.org.uk/2018/08/carers-allowance-top-up/ | access-date=22 January 2026}}</ref>
In 2023 Scotland replaced Carer's Allowance, with the Scottish specific Carer Support Payment. The rollout of this benefit was piloted, with new applicants applying for Carer Support Payment. Existing claimant's began to be moved to Carers Support Payment in February 2024 with the change over being made automatically.<ref name="f931">{{cite web | title=Carer's Allowance replacement to launch in Scotland from Sunday | website=Contact | date=14 November 2023 | url=https://contact.org.uk/about-contact/news-and-views/carers-allowance-replacement-to-launch-in-scotland-from-sunday/ | access-date=22 January 2026}}</ref>
==Effect on other benefits==
Counts in full as income for means-tested benefits but carries with it an entitlement to a Carer's Premium on all means-tested benefits, even if Carer's Allowance is not actually paid because of the overlapping rules. (You can’t normally get two income-replacement benefits, e.g. Carer's Allowance and the State Pension, paid together.)
If you can't be paid Carer's Allowance because of this rule, you have an ‘underlying entitlement’ to Carer's Allowance instead. This might mean you could get:
* the extra amount for carers in Pension Credit * the carer element in Universal Credit<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/what-youll-get|website=www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/what-youll-get|title=Carer's Allowance|publisher=Gov.UK|accessdate=7 November 2014}}</ref>
If there is a person claiming Carer's Allowance in respect of a disabled person then the disabled person cannot qualify for the Severe Disability Premium in any means-tested benefit. The claimant is entitled to a National Insurance credit to protect pension rights.
==Carer's allowance scandal== In 2016 a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) whistleblower complained to Robert Devereux, who was the DWP permanent secretary at the time. The complaint concerned the DWP's failure to manage Carer's Allowance overpayments and how this was causing carers to accidentally land in large debts. The whistleblowers' complaint was closed a year later.<ref name="z274">{{cite web | last1=Halliday | first1=Josh | last2=Butler | first2=Patrick | title=The carer's allowance scandal – a timeline | website=The Guardian | date=25 November 2025 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/25/the-carers-allowance-scandal-a-timeline | access-date=10 February 2026}}</ref>
A report into the handling of carers allowance was published by the National Audit Office (NAO) and MPs in 2019. It was critical of how the DWP handled Carer's Allowance, specifically criticising how long it took the DWP to recognise and handle cases of overpayment. DWP's treatment of carers was called "heartless" and found that many of the debts were caused by DWP's own failures.<ref name="z274"/>
Peter Schofield, the DWP's permanent secretary at the time, spoke at a select committee hearing and insisted that the problem was under control. He claimed that the department was considering sending text warnings to carers who go over their earning limits and planned to use data matching software to prevent overpayments before they happened.<ref name="z274"/>
In April 2024 The Guardian released an investigation into the state of Carer's Allowance overpayments, revealing that tens of thousands of carers were still being pursued for overpayment debts. The DWP had taken some carers to court for fraud over the debts, and it was found that 134,500 carers were repaying debts as of April 2024. The amount at that time totalled £251m.<ref name="z274"/> The Labour government launched an independent review into the Carer's Allowance overpayments in October, headed by Liz Sayce.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Butler |first=Patrick |last2=Halliday |first2=Josh |date=2024-10-15 |title=Minister vows to end scandal that left thousands of UK carers in debt |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/15/labour-to-set-up-review-after-carers-allowance-overpayments-scandal |access-date=2026-02-10 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
==Proposals== In April 2019, the Labour Party announced that it would increase Carer's Allowance and raise the earnings threshold for it in line with the National Living Wage.<ref>{{cite news |title=Labour unveils plan for £2.8bn home care fund |url=https://www.homecareinsight.co.uk/labour-unveils-plan-for-2-8bn-home-care-fund/ |accessdate=9 June 2019 |publisher=Homecare Insight |date=29 April 2019}}</ref>
==See also==
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance Carers Allowance] {{UK benefits}} Category:Social security in the United Kingdom Category:1976 establishments in the United Kingdom