Is it time to scrap Carers Allowance?

What Carer’s Allowance Is:

Carer’s Allowance is a taxable weekly benefit paid to people who provide at least 35 hours of care per week to someone receiving a qualifying disability benefit. According to GOV.UK, the current rate is £86.45 per week .

You do not have to be related to the person you care for, and you do not need to live with them.

Who Can Get It

To qualify, all of the following must apply:

  • You provide 35 hours or more of care each week
  • The person you care for receives a qualifying disability benefit (e.g. PIP daily living, DLA middle/high care, Attendance Allowance)
  • You are 16 or over
  • You are not in full‑time education (21+ hours per week)
  • You normally live in England, Wales or Scotland
  • Your earnings are £204/week or less after deductions (tax, NI, half pension contributions)
  • If someone else also cares for the same person, only one of you can claim Carer’s Allowance for that individual.

What you don't get told

When claiming Carers Allowance, a large number of other benefits are affected. These benefits are there to financially assist the most vulnerable of people. They Include:

- State Pension: If you are over the age of 68 and claiming Carers Allowance for looking after a Partner, your State Pension will be reduced by the amount of Carers Allowance (£86.45) per week. So if your State Pensions is more than £345.80 per month, you will lose the full amount from your Pension.

Is that fair? You work your entire life to lose what you are due.

- Severe Disability Premium: If you claim the higher rate of Disability Living Allowance (for your child) or Personal Independence Payments (for adults), the same rules apply. Your benefit is reduced by the sum from Carers Allowance - Always.

Picture it if you will, someone comes to your house to look after you during serious illness, and the DWP take money away from you.

- Severe Disability Premium of Universal Credit: If you are claiming Universal Credit because you are on a low income, and someone comes to look after you for 35 hours per week, you could lose between £120 - £405 per month, depending on your circumstances.

Why does being looked after by a family member reduce your financial needs? Who picks up that difference?

- Income Support: Income Support is a legacy benefit which is slowly being phased out by Universal Credit, but the same rules apply. 

Claimants of Income Support are usually "economically inactive" for a reason, whether it be Disability (mental or physical), pregnancy or Single Parents with a child under a certain age.

The same question applies, if you are a Single Parent who needs a carer or a Patient who has mental ill health, why are our financial needs reduced because someone comes to care for us for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week?

How many people have care needs that are 9-4 Monday to Friday?

Which brings us to the worst one of all.

- Pension Credit:  Pension Credit was created in 2003 to ensure that Pensioners who were receiving a "lower than average" State Pension, were still able to meet their financial obligations.

This in effect "topped up" a persons pension who had for whatever reason, not paid enough NI contributions to cover their retirement in later life.

This is not a system meant to reward Carers for the work they do, it is designed to Punish those who save the UK Economy BILLIONS.

Is there an alternative?

Yes !

A tapered approach to reductions

Universal Credit is slowly reduced to zero when you gain employment.

If you have a job and claim Universal Credit, it is reduced at a rate of 1:55, meaning for every pound you earn over the UC threshold, you lose 55p of your Universal Credit.

Applying the same method to Carers Allowance would mean that Unpaid Carers could earn a further £157 per week before losing their whole entitlement to the benefit.

Removal of the "Cliff Edge"

It is called the "Cliff Edge" because once you get to the threshold, it is all or nothing.

If you earn even 1p above the current £204.00 per week threshold, you lose 100% of the benefit, not a little bit, ALL OF IT.

Change the assessment periods from weekly to monthly.

The Department for Work and Pensions administer weekly assessments of earnings provided by HM Revenues and Customs. This barbaric approach leaves unpaid carers, who are in employment having to work out how much they are going to be paid, every week and then ensuring they report this to the Carers Allowance Unit within 28 days.

As most people who are in employment are paid monthly, changing the assessment period would mean, less administration, reduced possibility of mistakes being made and Carers can actually budget effectively.

Despite the fact that most Unpaid Carers are not accountants and have no idea on what it is they are actually allowed to claim as exemptions.

An exemption is a reduction that you are allowed to make when presenting your income and expenditure to the Department for Work and Pensions, and these can be for almost anything.


Securing Financial Justice

The UK has relied on Carers for far too long. The first version of Carers Allowance was created back in 1973 and was called the Invalid Care Allowance. Over the years, it has changed names, the amount awarded has gone up, but the system remains the same.

Carers Allowance should be deducted from Attendance Allowance only.

Why?

Attendance Allowance is the only allowance that is paid to meet the care needs of the disabled or older person. It exists specifically to recognise that they require help with daily living — washing, dressing, eating, medication, supervision, safety. It is a care‑needs payment.

Carer’s Allowance is also a care‑needs payment — but paid to the carer instead of the cared‑for person.

"Right now, the system treats these two payments as if they are unrelated, while simultaneously clawing back money from completely different benefits like Pension Credit or Universal Credit. That makes no sense."

If two benefits are paid for the same purpose — care — then only those two benefits should interact.

By contrast:

Pension Credit is about income
Housing Benefit is about rent
Universal Credit is about basic living costs
State Pension is about retirement income

None of these are “care benefits”. None of them should be reduced because someone receives care.

Attendance Allowance is.

So if the government insists on maintaining an “overlapping benefit” rule, then the only logical, fair, and morally defensible overlap is between Carer’s Allowance and Attendance Allowance — because they are the only two benefits that pay for the same thing: care.

This reform would:

Stop penalising disabled and older people for having a carer
Stop pushing carers and families deeper into poverty
Make the system coherent instead of contradictory
Recognise care as a shared need, not a financial punishment

It’s simple:

"If a benefit is paid for care, it should only interact with another benefit paid for care — nothing else."

What do you think?

Do you agree?

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Yes: 0 votes
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