Who can apply for Carer Support Payment
Carer Support Payment is money you can get if you provide care for someone and meet certain eligibility criteria. You must:
- be 16 or over
- usually live in Scotland
- provide care for 35 hours or more a week, this includes if you provide care all day every day
- not earn more than £151 a week after tax, National Insurance and expenses
The person you provide care for must get certain disability benefits.
Read all about eligibility criteria on the rest of this page.
Carer Support Payment became available across Scotland from November 2024. This benefit replaces Carer’s Allowance in Scotland.
You cannot get Carer Support Payment and Carer's Allowance at the same time.
If you get Carer's Allowance and live in Scotland, you do not need to apply for Carer Support Payment. Your benefit will move to Carer Support Payment. This is happening between February 2024 and spring 2025. Learn more about moving from Carer's Allowance to Carer Support Payment.
If you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, find out more about Carer's Allowance at GOV.UK.
Check if you're eligible for Carer Support Payment
Check if you might be able to get Carer Support Payment by answering a few questions.
You'll be asked:
- your age
- where you live
- what benefits the person you care for gets
- how many hours of care you provide
- if anyone else provides care for the same person
- if you earn any money
The type of care you provide
To get Carer Support Payment, you must provide care for someone as an unpaid carer for 35 hours or more a week. It cannot be care you provide:
- as a professional care worker
- through a volunteering scheme or charity
Even if you do not think of yourself as an unpaid carer, you might be eligible for Carer Support Payment. Examples of caring for someone include supporting them:
- with their mental health
- during an illness
- with a disability
- if they have an addiction
Supporting someone with their mental health
If you provide care for someone with a mental health condition, you might:
- comfort them during a panic attack
- stay close by so they do not feel alone
- support them through a crisis
- make sure they're safe
- keep them company
Supporting someone with an illness or disability
If you provide care for someone with an illness or disability, you might support them with:
- getting around
- getting dressed
- taking medicines
- using the shower or toilet
- cooking meals
- food shopping
- translating
The person you provide care for
You might provide care for:
- someone in your family
- a friend
- a neighbour
You do not have to live with them or be related to them.
You can only apply for Carer Support Payment for one person. If you provide care for more people, you are not entitled to extra payments.
Benefits the person you care for gets
To be eligible for Carer Support Payment, you must provide care for someone who gets one of these disability benefits:
- Adult Disability Payment – daily living component
- Child Disability Payment – middle or highest care rate
- Pension Age Disability Payment
- Attendance Allowance
- Personal Independence Payment – daily living component
- Disability Living Allowance – middle or highest care rate
- 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
These are sometimes called 'qualifying benefits'.
If you get Carer Support Payment, it will not affect the qualifying benefit the person you care for gets. But it could affect other benefits that you and the person you care for get. If you live with a partner, it could also affect their benefits.
Find out about how Carer Support Payment may affect other benefits.
Which country you live in
If you've recently moved to Scotland
You need to have lived in the Common Travel Area (UK, Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man) for at least 26 of the last 52 weeks, unless:
- you have refugee status
- you have certain immigration circumstances
- you or the person you care for have a terminal illness
- you’ve been out of the Common Travel Area because you or one of your family are a UK Civil Servant or a serving member of His Majesty’s Armed Forces
- you’re an aircraft worker, mariner or continental shelf operations worker
- the person you care for gets Armed Forces Independence Payment or Constant Attendance Allowance
Read more about getting benefits if you’ve recently moved to Scotland. Go to Citizens Advice Scotland.
If you live outside of Scotland
Since November 2024, you might be able to get Carer Support Payment if either:
- you live in an EU country, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland or Gibraltar and have a genuine and sufficient link to Scotland
- you or a family member are posted abroad as a member of His Majesty's Armed Forces, or as a UK Civil Servant
A genuine and sufficient link is where you do not live in Scotland, but have a link to Scotland. For example, you have spent a significant part of your life in Scotland.
If you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you can apply for Carer’s Allowance. Read about benefits and support you may be able to get:
- support for carers in England and Wales – go to GOV.UK
- support for carers in Northern Ireland – go to nidirect
If you get Carer's Allowance
If you already get Carer’s Allowance and live in Scotland, you do not need to apply for Carer Support Payment.
DWP and Social Security Scotland will move you from Carer's Allowance to Carer Support Payment. This is happening between February 2024 and spring 2025. This will happen automatically and you do not need to do anything.
DWP will continue to pay you until Social Security Scotland starts to pay you Carer Support Payment.
There'll be no gap in your award and the amount you get will stay the same.
Read more about moving from DWP to Social Security Scotland.
Your age
To be eligible for Carer Support Payment, you must be aged 16 or older.
If you're aged 16 but have not yet reached the minimum school leaving age, you will not normally be able to get Carer Support Payment. This is because it is not available to people who are aged 16 and in school full time. But you may be able to get Carer Support Payment if you're below the minimum school leaving age and have exceptional circumstances. Learn about the exceptional circumstances.
Find out about school leaving age in Scotland at GOV.UK.
If you study
If you’re aged 16 to 19, you cannot normally get Carer Support Payment if you spend 21 hours or more a week studying certain courses at school or college. But there are exceptional circumstances where you can get Carer Support Payment when you’re studying for those courses.
Learn about Carer Support Payment if you study.
If you work
To get Carer Support Payment your take home pay cannot be more than £151 a week. This is about the same as £654 a month, or £7,852 a year. Your take home pay is what's left after you've paid tax, National Insurance and expenses such as childcare costs while you work.
It’s okay if your take home pay is sometimes more than £151 a week. Social Security Scotland will work out how much your average take home pay is.
Learn about Carer Support Payment if you work.
If someone else provides care for the same person
If you and someone else care for the same person for 35 hours or more a week, only one of you can get Carer Support Payment. So you might want to talk to each other to decide who’ll apply. If you both apply, Social Security Scotland has a process of deciding who’ll be awarded Carer Support Payment.
You can get advice on how your other benefits might be affected so you can both get as much money from benefits as possible. Contact Citizens Advice Scotland.
You cannot get Carer Support Payment if someone else provides care for the same person and already gets any of:
- Carer Support Payment
- Carer’s Allowance
- Universal Credit carer element
You can still get Carer Support Payment if someone else provides care for this person:
- as a professional care worker
- through a volunteering scheme or charity
You can also get Carer Support Payment if someone else provides care for this person and gets Young Carer Grant.
If you are not eligible
If you cannot get Carer Support Payment, you might be able to get other benefits and support.
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