Carer Support Payment (Scotland)

Carer Support Payment is a benefit for people in Scotland who are caring for someone with a disability.

It is available in all areas of Scotland and has replaced Carer’s Allowance. If you live in Scotland and are receiving Carer’s Allowance you will automatically be moved onto Carer Support Payment without needing to make a claim.

Carer Support Payment is £83.30 a week. It is paid every 4 weeks in arrears. However, if you move from Carer’s Allowance to Carer Support Payment, you can be paid weekly.

Eligibility

To qualify for Carer Support Payment you must:

• be 16 or over (only available to 16-19 year-olds if you have reached minimum school leaving age and are not studying for 21 hours a week or more unless an exception applies)
• usually live in Scotland
• spend at least 35 hours a week caring for a disabled person who is in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit
• earn no more than £196 a week from paid work, after tax National Insurance and expenses

Carer Support Payment is not ‘means-tested’ – this means that your (and your partner’s) income and savings are not taken into account. However, your own earnings may affect your entitlement.

Carer Support Payment counts in full as income for Universal Credit and other means-tested benefits.

If you get Carer Support Payment, you may also be eligible for Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

What are the qualifying disability benefits?

To be eligible for Carer Support Payment, the person you care for must be in receipt of one of the following qualifying disability benefits:

• Adult Disability Payment – the standard or enhanced rate of the daily living component
• Child Disability Payment – the middle or highest rate of the care component
• Pension Age Disability Payment
• Attendance Allowance
• Personal Independence Payment – the standard or enhanced rate of the daily living component
• Disability Living Allowance – the middle or highest rate of the care component
• Scottish Adult Disability Payment – the middle or highest rate of the care component
• Constant Attendance Allowance at or above normal maximum rate with Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit 
• Constant Attendance Allowance at or above the basic (full day) rate with a War Disablement Pension 
• Armed Forces Independence Payment

Claiming Carer Support Payment won’t affect the qualifying disability benefit of the person you care for but it could affect other benefits you and the person you care for get. Seek advice if you are unsure how claiming Carer Support Payment may affect other benefits.

What counts as caring?

You must provide care for someone for at least 35 hours per week. You do not have to be related to or live with the person you are caring for.

You cannot average the hours out if you provide at least 35 hours of care in some weeks but not others. You also cannot include care you do as paid work or that you carry out as voluntarily work.

You cannot combine hours spent caring for more than one person to make up the 35 hours. If you care for more than one person, you can only receive Carer Support Payment for one of them. You do not get any extra payments.

If more than one person provides care for the same person, only one of you can be paid Carer Support Payment. You cannot get Carer Support Payment if someone else is caring for the person and already receives Carer Support Payment, Carer’s Allowance or the carer element of Universal Credit.

Care includes time spent supporting someone with their mental health, during an illness or with a disability. It includes providing physical assistance, supervision or prompting and can also include time spent preparing for the disabled person to come and stay with you and time spent cleaning up after their visit. Any physical help you give, time spent keeping an eye on the person, time spent providing encouragement and reassurance and time spent doing practical tasks for the person all count as caring.

It can be easy to underestimate the amount of care you are providing, particularly if you’re caring for a child or somebody with cognitive or mental health needs. With children, if the support you are providing is substantially in excess of the support a child of the same age without a disability would need, then it probably counts as caring for Carer Support Payment.

Entitlement if you work

You can claim Carer Support Payment if you work. However, you are not entitled if you earn more than £196 a week after tax, National Insurance and certain expenses. This is around the same as £849 a month or £10,192 a year.

If your earnings vary, you may still be entitled to Carer Support Payment if you sometimes earn more than £196 a week, provided that your average earnings are no more than £196 a week.

Only earnings from paid work count. Earnings from work done during any breaks from caring are ignored.

The following do not count as earnings:

• payments from other benefits 
• payments from pensions 
• student support payments 
• fostering allowances meant to pay for the cost of caring for the foster child 
• contributions towards your living or housing costs from someone you live with who is not a tenant or boarder 
• the first £20 a week of any payments you get from someone boarding in your home, including rent payments and contributions towards bills, and 50% of any payments above £20 
• income tax refunds 
• redundancy payments 

You can deduct the following expenses from your earnings:

• 50% of any contributions you pay into an occupational or private pension
• up to 50% of your take home pay for any childcare fees you pay so you can work
• up to 50% of your take home pay if you have to pay someone else to care for the person you claim Carer Support Payment in respect of so you can work
• necessary costs directly related to your job that your employer or your business does not pay you back for. For example, work travel, work clothes or phone calls. Travel to your usual place of work does not count as an expense 
• self-employment business expenses, for example, heating, lighting or cleaning 

You must tell Social Security Scotland about any changes to your earnings, including if you start or stop work or if the amount you earn goes up or down.

More information about how work affects Carer Support Payment can be found on the mygov.scot website.

How to apply

You can apply for Carer Support Payment online, by phone, by post or in person. Before applying you can use the following tool to check your eligibility.

The easiest way to apply is online.

To apply by phone contact Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222 (Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm)

To apply by post you can call Social Security Scotland to ask for a form to be posted to you or you can download and print the form. Send it to the address shown at the end of the form.

For information on applying in person see here.

In some circumstances claims can be backdated by up to 13 weeks.

You will need to provide the following information as part of the application process:

• your payslip for the period immediately before you are claiming from and any subsequent payslips you have received since – if you work
• your most recent finalised business accounts – if you are self-employed
• your bank or building society details
• details of the person you care for

See here if you need help to apply.

This advice applies in England, Wales and Scotland. If you live in another part of the UK, the law may differ. Please call our helpline for more details. If you are in Northern Ireland you can visit the Labour Relations Agency or call their helpline Workplace Information Service on 03300 555 300.

If you have further questions and would like to contact our advice team please use our advice contact form below or call us.

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