Carer's Allowance: the complete UK guide (2026/27)

Carer’s Allowance is a benefit of £86.45 a week (2026/27) — about £4,495 a year — for people who spend 35 or more hours a week caring for someone who gets a qualifying disability benefit, such as Attendance Allowance. It is paid to you, the carer, not to the person you look after. There is no savings test, but your earnings from work must be £204 a week or less, and claiming it can reduce the benefits of the person you care for — so it pays to check both sides before applying.

That last point is why Carer’s Allowance deserves more care than most benefits. For many families it is straightforwardly worth claiming. For others — especially where the person cared for gets Pension Credit — a claim can quietly make the household worse off. This guide covers the rules, the money, the claim process, and the two big traps: the earnings cliff edge and the severe disability addition.

This guide is general information, not financial or legal advice. For advice about your own situation, speak to a regulated professional, or a free service such as Citizens Advice or Age UK.

What is Carer’s Allowance?

Carer’s Allowance is the main UK benefit for unpaid carers, paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It recognises — modestly — the work of people who give up paid hours to look after a disabled or ill family member, friend or neighbour.

Three things worth knowing straight away:

• It is paid to the carer. If you look after your mum, the money goes to you, not to her. It makes no difference to her savings or income.
• You don’t have to live with the person, or be related to them. What matters is the hours of care you provide.
• You don’t need to have paid National Insurance. Unlike the State Pension, there are no contribution conditions.

It is taxable, although Carer’s Allowance alone is well below the personal allowance — tax only becomes relevant if you have other income on top. It also pays Class 1 National Insurance credits, which protect your State Pension record while you care. For many working-age carers that quiet pension protection is worth as much as the weekly payment.

How much is Carer’s Allowance in 2026/27?

	Amount
Weekly rate	£86.45
Over a full year	about £4,495

Rates correct for the 2026/27 tax year. Benefit rates change every April — always check the current figures on gov.uk.

There is one rate — it doesn’t increase with more hours of care or more than one person cared for. You cannot receive two awards of Carer’s Allowance for caring for two people, and only one carer can be paid it for each person cared for. If you and a sibling share the care of a parent, only one of you can claim.

Payment is usually weekly in advance or every four weeks, into a bank account.

Who can claim Carer’s Allowance?

You can claim if all five of these apply:

1. You care for someone 35 or more hours a week. That’s the equivalent of a full-time job, but the hours can be spread across days and nights in any pattern.
2. The person you care for gets a qualifying disability benefit. For an older parent that usually means Attendance Allowance (either rate) or, in Scotland, Pension Age Disability Payment. For younger people it means the daily living component of PIP, or the middle or highest care rate of Disability Living Allowance. If your parent hasn’t claimed Attendance Allowance yet, sort that first — without it, no one can get Carer’s Allowance for looking after them.
3. Your earnings are £204 a week or less after certain deductions (2026/27 figure). This is the rule that catches most working carers — see the next section.
4. You are not in full-time education — broadly, 21 or more hours a week of supervised study.
5. You live in Great Britain and meet the residence rules. (In Scotland, new claims are for Carer Support Payment instead — see below.)

There is no upper age limit for claiming, but if you get a State Pension the overlapping benefits rule usually stops the money being paid — more on that further down.

How does the earnings limit work?

This is the most unforgiving rule in the benefits system, so it’s worth understanding properly.

Your earnings from work must be £204 a week or less after deductions (2026/27). The figure is pegged to 16 hours at the National Living Wage — the idea being that you can work part-time and still be a full-time carer.

Two crucial details:

• £204 is a net figure. It’s what’s left after income tax, National Insurance, half of any pension contributions you make, and some care costs you pay so that you can work (for example, paying someone to sit with your parent while you’re at your job — up to half your earnings). Many people who look over the limit on gross pay are actually under it once the deductions are applied.
• It is a cliff edge, not a taper. Earn £204 and you keep the full £86.45. Earn £204.01 and you lose all of it for that period. There is no partial payment. This cliff edge is behind the widely reported overpayment problems, where carers who drifted slightly over the limit — often without realising — were later asked to repay large sums. The lesson is simple: report any change in your earnings to the DWP promptly, and re-check whenever your pay changes.

Savings, private pension income and your partner’s earnings are all irrelevant — only your own earnings from work count. Fluctuating or term-time-only pay can be averaged, and the self-employed use their profit. We cover all of this, with worked examples, in Can you get Carer’s Allowance if you work full time?

What counts as 35 hours of caring?

More than most people think. “Caring” is not just hands-on personal care. It includes:

• Practical help: washing, dressing, cooking, medication, lifting, supervising someone who isn’t safe alone
• Help with communication, letters, phone calls and appointments
• The admin: managing benefits, chasing the GP, arranging care visits, dealing with the council — it all counts
• Time spent keeping an eye on someone, and time you cannot use as your own because you need to be there
• Emotional support and reassurance, which for conditions like dementia can be a large part of the job

You don’t need to log hours or prove them with a diary, but the DWP can ask how your caring time is made up, so it helps to have a realistic picture in your head. If you provide care jointly with someone else, remember only one of you can claim — usually it should be the person whose earnings and benefits position makes the claim worthwhile.

If you care for 20 to 34 hours a week — below the threshold — look at Carer’s Credit instead. It pays no money, but it protects your National Insurance record and therefore your future State Pension.

How do you claim Carer’s Allowance?

Two routes:

1. Online at gov.uk/carers-allowance — the quickest way for most people.
2. By post on form DS700 — or form DS700(SP) if you get a State Pension. You can ask the Carer’s Allowance Unit to send one.

Before you start, have to hand:

• Your National Insurance number and bank details
• Details of the person you care for, including which disability benefit they get and their date of birth
• Your employment and earnings details (payslips, or accounts if self-employed), plus any pension contributions
• Course details if you’re studying

Claims can be backdated up to 3 months, as long as you met the conditions during that time — so don’t panic if you’ve been caring for a while without claiming, but don’t sit on it either.

One sequencing tip: Carer’s Allowance depends on the cared-for person’s disability benefit, so if their Attendance Allowance claim is still being decided, you can submit your Carer’s Allowance claim and it will be linked to the outcome. That way, if the Attendance Allowance is awarded and backdated, your Carer’s Allowance can follow it back too, rather than starting from scratch months later.

You’ll get a decision by letter. If it’s a refusal you disagree with, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration within one month, and appeal to an independent tribunal after that — the same route as for any DWP benefit, and Citizens Advice can help at every stage.

What do you need to report after you claim?

Carer’s Allowance is a benefit where small unreported changes turn into large bills, so it’s worth being clear about what the DWP expects to hear about. Tell the Carer’s Allowance Unit if:

• Your earnings change — a pay rise, extra shifts, a new job, changed pension contributions. Even a small increase can tip you over the £204 cliff edge, and every week over the limit is a week you weren’t entitled to.
• Your caring drops below 35 hours a week, or stops.
• You take a break — a holiday, respite, or either of you going into hospital (see the break rules below).
• The person you care for goes into hospital or a care home, or their disability benefit stops or changes. If their Attendance Allowance pauses after 28 days in hospital, your Carer’s Allowance is affected too.
• You start a course of study of 21 or more hours a week.

None of this is meant to alarm — reporting takes a phone call or an online form, and most changes are absorbed without drama. The overpayment stories that reached the newspapers almost all began with a change that went unreported for months or years. Report early, keep a note of when and what you reported, and the cliff edge loses most of its menace.

How does Carer’s Allowance affect your own benefits and pension?

Mostly positively, with two things to watch:

• National Insurance credits. Carer’s Allowance pays Class 1 NI credits automatically, filling gaps in your record so your caring years still count towards your State Pension. For a carer in their 40s or 50s who has cut their hours, this matters a great deal.
• It is taxable. On its own it’s below the personal allowance, but if you have other taxable income — part-time earnings, a rental, a pension — it stacks on top.
• Means-tested benefits. Carer’s Allowance counts as income for benefits like Universal Credit, but claiming it also flags you as a carer, which can add carer-specific amounts. If you’re of working age and on a low income, Universal Credit has a carer element of its own — check gov.uk or get a full benefits check.
• Pension Credit. If you (the carer) get Pension Credit, an entitlement to Carer’s Allowance — even one that can’t be paid — adds a carer addition of £48.15 a week to it. See Carer’s Allowance and State Pension.

How does it affect the person you care for?

Here is the trap that catches families out, and it’s important enough to state plainly.

If anyone is paid Carer’s Allowance for looking after a person, that person loses the severe disability addition in their Pension Credit — worth £86.05 a week in 2026/27 — or the equivalent severe disability premium in older benefits.

Run the numbers: you gain £86.45 a week; your parent loses £86.05 a week. The family is 40p a week better off — and once knock-on effects on things like council tax support are counted, some families end up genuinely worse off.

This only bites where the person cared for actually receives the severe disability addition (broadly: they get Attendance Allowance, live alone, and are on Pension Credit). If they don’t get it — for example, their income is too high for Pension Credit — Carer’s Allowance is a clean gain. And crucially, underlying entitlement alone does not trigger the trap — only Carer’s Allowance that is actually paid.

We’ve written this up properly, with examples, in Does claiming Carer’s Allowance affect their benefits? Read it before you claim. Our free benefits check also flags this situation automatically.

Can you get Carer’s Allowance and the State Pension?

Usually not both in full. Carer’s Allowance and the State Pension overlap, so if your State Pension is £86.45 a week or more, Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid on top. If your pension is under £86.45, Carer’s Allowance tops it up to that level.

But a claim is still often worthwhile, because it establishes underlying entitlement — a formal recognition that you qualify, even though the money can’t be paid. That recognition adds the £48.15 carer addition to Pension Credit and can increase Housing Benefit and council tax support. Full explanation in Carer’s Allowance and State Pension: the overlap rule.

With State Pension age currently rising from 66 to 67, more people in their mid-60s will spend longer as working-age carers before the overlap rule affects them.

What happens if you take a break from caring?

Carer’s Allowance doesn’t stop the moment you take a holiday. Broadly:

• Payment can continue for up to 4 weeks of break in any 26 weeks — for example respite care or a holiday.
• If you or the person you care for goes into hospital, payment can continue for up to 12 weeks in some circumstances — the exact break rules have conditions, so check gov.uk/carers-allowance before relying on them.

Whatever the break, tell the DWP. Unreported changes are how overpayments build up, and overpayments are recovered.

What about Scotland?

In Scotland, Carer’s Allowance has been replaced for new claims by Carer Support Payment, paid by Social Security Scotland under the same headline rules — same rate, same 35-hour test, same earnings limit. Existing Scottish Carer’s Allowance awards have been moving across automatically. Scottish carers also get the Carer’s Allowance Supplement, an extra payment made twice a year on top. See mygov.scot for details.

Is Carer’s Allowance worth claiming?

For most carers under State Pension age with earnings under the limit — yes, clearly: about £4,495 a year plus National Insurance credits, for care you’re already providing.

The honest weigh-up:

• Clear win: you’re of working age, under the earnings limit, and the person you care for does not get the severe disability addition in Pension Credit.
• Still worth claiming, differently: you get a State Pension of £86.45 or more — claim anyway for underlying entitlement, which can unlock the £48.15 carer addition and more.
• Check first: the person you care for gets Pension Credit with the severe disability addition. The family may gain pennies or lose money — do the sums on both sides before anyone is paid.
• Under 35 hours or over the earnings limit: Carer’s Credit protects your pension record instead.

If you’re unsure where you land, Carers UK, Citizens Advice and Age UK all offer free benefits checks — or run our free benefits check, which looks at your side and your parent’s side together and flags the severe disability trap before you claim.