Carer's Allowance: eligibility, the earnings limit and overlapping payments

Carer's Allowance is the main benefit for people who spend at least 35 hours a week looking after someone who gets a disability benefit. It pays £86.45 a week, it is taxable, and it comes with National Insurance credits that protect your State Pension¹. Around 1,408,000 people were claiming it as of March 2026, according to the Department for Work and Pensions' official statistics³.

The rules that catch people out are the earnings limit and the rules on overlapping benefits. You can lose the whole week's payment for going £1 over the earnings limit of £204 a week after deductions⁴, and you are usually not paid Carer's Allowance at all if you already get your State Pension or certain other benefits, even though you may still qualify in other ways². In Scotland, Carer's Allowance has been replaced by Carer Support Payment, which works in a very similar way but is paid by Social Security Scotland⁶.

Carer's Allowance: £86.45 a week for 35 hours of care

Carer's Allowance provides a measure of financial support if you care for someone at least 35 hours a week and they get a qualifying disability benefit¹. You do not have to be related to the person or live with them, so the benefit is open to friends and neighbours as well as family members⁹. The 35 hours can include practical tasks such as cooking, washing, dressing, helping with medication and keeping the person company, and they do not have to be 35 hours of hands-on care.

The weekly rate is £86.45¹. You only get one award even if you look after more than one person, and you are not paid more for caring for several people⁴. Where two people each provide at least 35 hours a week of care to the same disabled child, only one of them can get Carer's Allowance for that child, and the same restriction applies to the carer element of Universal Credit⁴. The two carers need to agree between them who will claim.

Carer's Allowance is usually paid on a Monday, either weekly in advance or once every four weeks in arrears¹¹. It is taxable, but many carers pay no tax on it because their total income stays below the income tax threshold of £12,570 a year in 2026/27². If you have other income, such as earnings or a private or workplace pension, the allowance is added to it and tax is charged on the combined amount if it crosses that threshold².

Who can claim: age, study and the benefits the cared-for person must get

To claim Carer's Allowance you must be aged 16 or over, spend at least 35 hours a week caring for someone, and not be in full-time education or studying for 21 hours a week or more². There is no upper age limit, although in practice most people over State Pension age are not paid it because of the overlapping benefits rules covered below¹³. Your savings, your partner's income and your own National Insurance record make no difference to the claim, because Carer's Allowance is not means-tested².

The person you care for must be receiving one of a set of disability benefits. The qualifying benefits include:

• Attendance Allowance, or Pension Age Disability Payment in Scotland (the equivalent for people over State Pension age)¹⁰
• Personal Independence Payment, daily living component, at either rate¹⁰
• Adult Disability Payment, daily living component, at either rate (Scotland)¹⁰
• Disability Living Allowance, or Child Disability Payment in Scotland, at the middle or highest care component rate¹⁰
• Constant Attendance Allowance at or above the normal maximum rate with an Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, or at or above the basic full day rate with a War Disablement Pension¹⁰
• Armed Forces Independence Payment¹⁰

If the person you care for has a disability benefit claim still in progress, you can still make your Carer's Allowance claim, and it can be backdated to the start of their DLA or PIP award if you claim within three months of the decision awarding it⁴. Guidance on Attendance Allowance, PIP and Disability Living Allowance explains how those benefits are awarded.

The earnings limit: £204 a week after deductions

If you work, you can only get Carer's Allowance if your earnings after deductions are no more than £204 a week⁴. The limit rose from £196 to £204 net a week from 6 April 2026⁵, and the legislation sets the amount in line with 16 times the hourly National Living Wage, rounded up to the nearest pound⁵. The £204 figure works out at £10,608 a year².

The limit applies to earnings after income tax, National Insurance and half of any pension contribution have been taken off, and after allowable expenses². Allowable expenses include work-related expenses, payments for alternative care while you are at work, and 50% of your pension contributions². This means the limit is assessed on net earnings, not on the gross figure on your payslip.

The limit works as a cliff edge. If you earn anything above £204 in a week, you lose all of your Carer's Allowance for that week, not just part of it⁸. Even £1 over the limit means 100% of the allowance, currently £86.45, is lost for that week⁸. Earnings are looked at for the immediately preceding week, so a single high-earning week can affect the following week's payment¹⁷.

Because the loss is total rather than gradual, a small pay rise or extra shift can leave you worse off overall. The dedicated page on the Carer's Allowance earnings limit and breaks from caring goes into how the weekly assessment works in more detail, and working while claiming covers the earnings rules for benefits generally.

Overlapping benefits: when you are entitled but not paid

You cannot usually get Carer's Allowance if you are already claiming State Pension or certain income-replacing benefits². This is the rule on overlapping benefits: you may qualify for two or more benefits at once, but only one of them can be paid in full¹⁰. The benefits that overlap with Carer's Allowance include:

• State Pension¹⁸
• New style (contributory) Employment and Support Allowance¹⁸
• New style (contribution-based) Jobseeker's Allowance¹⁸
• Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance¹⁸
• Maternity Allowance¹³
• Bereavement benefits, though not Bereavement Support Payment¹⁸

Where two benefits overlap, you are paid whichever gives the higher amount, not both¹⁸. Because the State Pension is usually higher than £86.45 a week, most people over State Pension age who qualify for Carer's Allowance are simply paid their State Pension instead.

Qualifying can still be worth doing even when you are not paid. This is called having an underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance: just being eligible can entitle you to a top-up in means-tested benefits such as Pension Credit, Universal Credit or Housing Benefit². People over State Pension age are the main group affected, and the page on Pension Credit explains how the carer addition works there.

How Carer's Allowance affects Universal Credit and the cared-for person's benefits

You can usually claim Universal Credit and Carer's Allowance at the same time if you meet the rules for both². The carer element of Universal Credit and Carer's Allowance are two separate things, and you can claim both¹⁹. But Carer's Allowance counts in full as income when your Universal Credit is calculated: for every £1 of Carer's Allowance you receive, £1 is deducted from your Universal Credit award⁴. Claiming both is still usually better overall because the carer element is worth more than the deduction, but the interaction is automatic and you do not choose it.

If you declare yourself as a carer on your Universal Credit claim, even if you do not get Carer's Allowance, your award will include an additional payment, the carer element²⁰. How Universal Credit is built up, including the carer element, is covered in how Universal Credit is worked out. Note that Universal Credit is paid monthly, which differs from Carer's Allowance paid weekly or every four weeks¹⁹.

Claiming Carer's Allowance can also affect the person you care for. If they are getting the Severe Disablement Premium, this will stop if you claim Carer's Allowance for them². It is worth the person you care for knowing this before you claim, because the loss can be larger than your gain. If your Carer's Allowance later stops because the person you care for goes into hospital or residential care, the carer element within your Universal Credit will also stop²¹.

Tax and National Insurance credits

Carer's Allowance is taxable². Whether you actually pay tax on it depends on your total income for the year: if your combined income stays below the £12,570 threshold for 2026/27, no tax is due, and if it goes over, tax is charged on the excess².

The National Insurance treatment is one of the most valuable parts of the benefit. For each week you get Carer's Allowance, you automatically receive Class 1 National Insurance credits⁸. These credits count towards your National Insurance record and so protect the amount of State Pension you will eventually receive⁸. Someone who gives up work to care for several years could otherwise build up gaps in their record and a smaller State Pension; the credits prevent that. Guidance on going abroad confirms that carers providing at least 20 hours of care a week can also be credited through the credits scheme for carers⁹.

If you are self-employed, remember that the earnings limit is applied after allowable expenses, including work-related expenses, payments for alternative care when at work, and 50% of your pension contributions². The page on Carer's Credit covers the separate credit for people caring 20 hours or more a week who do not qualify for Carer's Allowance.

Carer's Credit if you do not qualify for Carer's Allowance

Carer's Credit is a National Insurance credit that fills gaps in your record when you are caring but cannot get Carer's Allowance, most often because you cannot meet the 35-hour test or because an overlapping benefit such as State Pension means you are not paid². To qualify you must be aged 16 or over, not yet getting State Pension, not qualify for Carer's Allowance, and spending at least 20 hours a week caring for someone who gets a benefit because of their illness or disability².

If the person you look after does not get one of the qualifying benefits, you may still qualify by completing the Care Certificate part of the application form, signed by a health or social care professional². Carers can apply for Carer's Credit up to the end of the tax year following the tax year in which the caring took place, so there is some room to claim retrospectively, but not indefinitely²². You fill in the application form and include any Care Certificates needed to support it²².

Carer's Credit pays no money itself. Its value is entirely in the State Pension protection: each week of credit counts as if you had paid a National Insurance contribution for that week. For someone under State Pension age caring more than 20 hours a week, it is often the only thing protecting their pension record, and it is worth claiming even if you expect to return to work soon.

Hospital, care homes, holidays and bereavement: when payments continue or stop

Breaks from caring affect Carer's Allowance in different ways depending on who has the break and why.

If you go into hospital. Your Carer's Allowance will usually stop after 12 weeks, provided you still meet the rules and the person you care for is still getting their disability benefit²³. It may stop before 12 weeks if you have had other breaks from caring in the six months before you went into hospital²³.

If the person you care for goes into hospital. You can continue to get Carer's Allowance until their disability benefit stops, if you continue to provide care for at least 35 hours a week while they are in hospital²¹. Their disability benefit stops after a set period in hospital, and your Carer's Allowance follows it.

If the person you care for goes into a care home. Their benefits and your Carer's Allowance entitlement will stop after 28 days if their fees are paid in full by NHS continuing healthcare funding, or in full or in part by the local authority¹¹. You need to tell the Carer's Allowance Unit about the move²⁷.

Holidays and time abroad. In any circumstances other than accompanying the person you care for, you can continue to be paid Carer's Allowage for up to four weeks, as long as you have had no more than four weeks' break from caring in the last 26 weeks²⁵. The rules on going abroad and payments in hospital or prison cover these breaks in more detail.

Bereavement. Carer's Allowance can continue to be paid for up to eight weeks after the person you care for dies²⁴. In Scotland, where a Carer Additional Person Payment is in payment for a second cared-for person, that payment continues until the earlier of the carer ceasing to meet the rules or the expiry of 12 award weeks after the death²⁹.

Run-ons in other benefits. If your Carer's Allowance stops because the person you care for has gone into hospital or residential care, the carer premium or addition paid with your means-tested benefits can continue for eight weeks after the Carer's Allowance stops²⁵. If you were receiving Income Support as a carer, it can continue for up to eight weeks and should increase to the amount you were receiving from both benefits together²⁵.

How to claim and how far it can be backdated

Claims for Carer's Allowance are made to the Department for Work and Pensions, online or by post using the claim form available on GOV.UK¹. You will need details of your earnings, your National Insurance number and the disability benefit the person you care for receives.

Carer's Allowance can be backdated for up to 13 weeks if you have been eligible for that long². Independent guidance describes this as backdating by up to three months¹⁰. There is one exception worth knowing: if the person you care for has recently been awarded DLA or PIP, your claim can be backdated to the start of their award, so long as you claim within three months of receiving the decision⁴. Claims for Carer Support Payment in Scotland can similarly be backdated for up to 13 weeks before the date of claim if you met all the qualifying rules during that time¹⁴.

If you disagree with a decision on your claim, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration, and if you still disagree after that, appeal to an independent tribunal. Both stages have deadlines, so it is worth acting as soon as the decision arrives.

Reporting changes. You must tell the DWP if your circumstances change³¹. Reportable changes include starting or finishing a job or working different hours, your income going up or down, moving house, starting or stopping caring for someone, going into hospital or a care home, and going abroad²⁷. You can report a change online or by calling the Carer's Allowance Unit²⁷. Your claim might be stopped or reduced if you do not report a change straight away or you give incorrect information²⁷.

The page on reporting a change of circumstances explains what must be reported and when.

Carer Support Payment in Scotland and moving between UK nations

In Scotland, Carer Support Payment has replaced Carer's Allowance for most carers⁶. It is paid at the same weekly rate of £86.45³⁴, the earnings limit is the same £204 a week³⁴, and the overpayment rules are currently the same³². If you live in Scotland, you must apply for Carer Support Payment instead of Carer's Allowance². The comparison page on Carer's Allowance vs Carer Support Payment sets the two side by side.

Carer Support Payment is administered by Social Security Scotland rather than the DWP. People receiving it may also be able to claim the Scottish Carer Supplement on top of it, along with National Insurance credits³⁵. The Scottish Carer Supplement replaced Carer's Allowance Supplement for carers in receipt of Carer Support Payment³⁶.

Moving to Scotland. Anyone who moves to Scotland and was getting Carer's Allowance at the time of their move can apply for Carer Support Payment³⁷. If you are receiving Carer's Allowance and have recently moved to Scotland from England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you need to make a new application to Social Security Scotland for the replacement Scottish carer benefits³⁵. There is a transitional rule for people who became resident in Scotland before 15 March 2026 and whose Carer's Allowance ceased before that date: they can apply for Carer Support Payment within 26 weeks of the move²⁹.

Moving out of Scotland. Social Security Scotland publishes guidance for clients moving from Scotland to the rest of the UK, and the equivalent position applies in reverse: Carer's Allowance replaces Carer Support Payment, and a new claim to the DWP is needed³⁷. The page on moving between Scotland and the rest of the UK covers what happens to disability and carer payments on a move, and Carer Support Payment and Young Carer Grant covers the Scottish benefit in full.

Terminal illness. Applications for Scottish carer and disability benefits can be made under special rules for people with a terminal illness, which fast-track the process³⁸. The narrow page on special rules for terminal illness explains how these claims work.

Free, impartial help with any of this is available from MoneyHelper and from the benefits section of this site, including free calculators to check what you are entitled to.