Financial Help for Carers

If you are a carer for your child, a loved one or another disabled person, there is a wide range of financial support which you could be entitled to. The main help available to you is detailed below.

Carer's Allowance

If you're over 16 and care for someone for over 35 hours per week you may be entitled to Carer's Allowance. In order for you to be eligible for Carer's Allowance, the person you care for must be eligible for one of the following:

• Attendance Allowance
• Disability Living Allowance
• Constant Attendance Allowance

If you're earning over £95 per week or are in full-time education you won't be eligible. The weekly rate for Carer's Allowance is £48.65 but it's dependant on other benefits.

Direct Payments for Carers

If your Local Authority has assessed the situation and agrees that you need support services to help you in your role as a carer, you may be able to receive financial help for these services in the form of direct payments. Receiving direct payments means that you can choose and arrange the services yourself, rather than having the services arranged by social services.

You can contact your Local Authority to arrange an assessment.

Income Support

If you're under 60 and unable to work, or can only work less than 16 hours per week because of your caring responsibilities, you may be entitled to Income Support. If you're eligible for the Carer's Allowance, you may also be able to receive extra Income Support, known as a carer premium.

Community Care Grants

If your family is facing exceptional pressures because someone in your family is ill or disabled, you may be entitled to receive a Community Care Grant. In order to be eligible you must be receiving one of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• Jobseeker's Allowance
• Pension Credit

Community Care Grants are means-tested and there are restrictions on what you can use them for. Our article Community Care Grants will give you more information on this.

Help with Council Tax

If you are caring for someone other than your spouse, partner or child in your own home for over 35 hours per week, you may be entitled to a reduction on your Council Tax bill.

The Council Tax reduction for carers is paid separately to Council Tax benefit for those on low incomes. You may be entitled to receive this as well.

More information on help with housing costs for carers and disabled people is available in our article Help with Housing Costs.

Carers and State Pensions

If you are a carer, for a child or relative for example, you might not have enough qualifying years for a State Pension. However, there are schemes in place to protect the pensions of parents and carers. You may be able to claim the Additional State Pension or Home Responsibilities Protection.

More information is available on your pension as a carer in our article Pensions and Carers.

Travel

If you care for a disabled person you could be eligible for financial help with the costs of helping them get around. Some help is especially for disabled people with mobility problems and other help is more general. Some relevant schemes include:

• The Blue Badge Parking Scheme
• The Motability Scheme
• Vehicle Tax Exemption

More information on the specifics of these schemes is available in our article Help with Transport.

Fun

Many tourism and leisure venues provide a discount for disabled visitors and a further discount or free entry for their carer or another companion. Many venues advertise this with their prices, but if not it's always worth asking.

Venues might include cinemas, swimming pools and museums.