Carer support payment is a benefit for people in Scotland who regularly spend at least 35 hours a week caring for a disabled person. It is replacing carer’s allowance. Carer’s allowance remains in place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
You don’t have to be related to the person you are caring for or be living with them. You can still qualify for carer support payment even if you have never been employed or paid national insurance contributions.
Contents
How is carer support payment being introduced?
Who can get carer support payment?
Carer support payment and universal credit
Cross-border moves within the UK
Where can I get more help or information?
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How is carer support payment being introduced?
Carer support payment was introduced in three areas first of all: Perthshire and Kinross, the City of Dundee and the Western Isles. It is being rolled out across Scotland in other selected areas from summer 2024. It will be available nationally in Scotland from 4 November 2024. To find out if applications are open in your area, go to the carer support payment postcode checker.
Who can get carer support payment?
To qualify for carer support payment you must:
- be caring for a person who is getting a qualifying benefit;
- be aged 16 or over;
- not study on certain courses, if you are aged 16 to 19;
- be caring for at least 35 hours a week;
- not be earning more than £151 a week, if you have a part-time job (see below); and
- pass the residence and presence tests and not be subject to immigration control.
You cannot qualify for carer support payment if someone else gets carer support payment or the universal credit carer amount for looking after the same person that you look after; you can still get carer support payment if someone else gets the young carer grant for looking after that person.
You can only get one award of carer support payment, even if you care for more than one person.
Qualifying benefits
To get carer support payment you must regularly spend at least 35 hours a week caring for a person who receives one of the following ‘qualifying benefits’:
- either the middle or the highest rate of the care component of disability living allowance or child disability payment;
- the daily living component of personal independence payment or adult disability payment;
- attendance allowance;
- constant attendance allowance (of £88.70 or more) paid with the Industrial Injuries or War Pensions schemes; or
- armed forces independence payment.
What if I am working?
If you get carer support payment, you are allowed to work but must not earn more than £151 a week after tax, national insurance contributions and half of any pension contributions you make have been taken into account.
If you pay someone to look after either the person you care for or any of your children who are under the age of 16, you can have these payments offset against up to half of any net earnings you receive. You cannot do this if the payments are made to a close relative. A close relative is the parent, partner, son, daughter, brother or sister of you or the person you care for.
How much do I get?
The rate is £81.90 per week.
Carer support payment is not means tested, which means it is not affected by your income or savings (although there is an earnings limit). It is taxable. Any savings you have do not affect your carer support payment.
Carer support payment is normally paid every four weeks in arrears.
Carer support payment can continue to be paid for up to 8 weeks after the person you care for has died.
Carer’s allowance supplement
If you get carer support payment, you will also receive a ‘carer’s allowance supplement’ of £288.60 every six months.
Carer’s allowance supplement is disregarded when working out universal credit, pre-universal credit means-tested benefits, and tax credits.
How do I claim?
You can apply for care support payment online (www.mygov.scot/carer-support-payment/how-to-apply); you can also download a claim-form from this website. Alternatively, call Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222. If you are deaf and use British Sign Language, you may be able to claim using a video relay service (https://contactscotland-bsl.org).
If you live in Scotland and already get carer’s allowance, at some point you will be transferred to carer support payment. You will not need to make a claim.
If you are over pension age
You can still claim carer support payment after you have reached pension age. If your state pension is more than your carer support payment, you won't actually get carer support payment, but you will still have an ‘underlying entitlement’ to it. This may help you to get an increase in any pension credit or housing benefit that you receive.
Carer support payment and universal credit
You can get a ‘carer amount’ of £198.31 a month included in your universal credit award if you have ‘regular and substantial caring responsibilities’ for a severely disabled person. You are considered to have such responsibilities if you are entitled to carer support payment.
To qualify for universal credit, you may need to meet certain work-related conditions, known as requirements. These are recorded in a claimant commitment. If you have ‘regular and substantial caring responsibilities’ for a severely disabled person, none of the requirements will apply to you.
In hospital
If you go into hospital, your carer support payment will stop after 12 weeks. The day you are admitted is treated as a day out of hospital and the day you are discharged is treated as a day in hospital.
If the person you are caring for goes into hospital, your carer support payment will stop when their qualifying benefit stops.
Residence and presence tests
To qualify for carer support payment you must satisfy the residence and presence tests. For this, you must:
- be ordinarily resident (ie normally live) in Scotland;
- be habitually resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland or the Isle of Man. 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 you have come from; and
- normally have been present in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland or the Isle of Man for 26 weeks in the last 52 weeks before claiming. This is called the ‘past presence’ test. The past presence test does not apply if you are terminally ill or have been granted refugee leave or humanitarian protection (or are the dependant of someone with such leave or protection).
Cross-border moves within the UK
Moving to Scotland
If you receive carer’s allowance and move to Scotland, you must inform the DWP (or the Disability & Carer’s Service in Northern Ireland), who will contact Social Security Scotland. You continue to receive carer’s allowance until a decision is made on your entitlement to carer support payment, which is then awarded without a claim being required.
Moving from Scotland
Entitlement to carer support payment ends after 13 weeks of you ceasing to be ordinarily resident in Scotland, if you move to another part of the UK. Apply for carer’s allowance as soon as possible after moving, to avoid a gap between payments.
Where can I get more help or information?
You can get help and information at your local advice centre, such as Citizens Advice. You can get more information about where to get personal advice from our guidance on ‘Getting Advice’.
All our resources are free to download on our website at disabilityrightsuk.org.
14 May 2024
