Warning for over half a million people missing out on ‘essential aid’ worth £4,259 a year – see if you’re one of them

OVER half a million unpaid carers are missing out on thousands of pounds in free cash, new data shows.

Nearly £2.3billion worth of carer’s allowance goes unclaimed each financial year, with around 529,306 full-time, low-paid carers missing out, according to Policy in Practice.

Carers qualify for £81.90 a week if they look after someone for at least 35 hours a week, are earning less than £151 and the person they are caring for received a qualifying sickness or disability benefit.

Claiming carer’s allowance (now Carer’s Support Payment in Scotland) can affect people’s entitlement to other benefits, on top of the person they care for.

Many carers are also worried about getting it wrong, with recent reports of them being taken to court where they have mistakenly gone over the earnings threshold by just a small amount.

Deven Ghelani, founder of Policy in Practice, said: “Those entitled to Carer’s Allowance are living on a very low income.

“They should claim because not only are they caring for their loved ones, but they are also saving the taxpayer a huge amount of money.”

Unpaid carers save the NHS and social care £162billion a year, with around 600 people a day giving up work to care for someone.

Find out more about support at carersuk.org.uk or call the charity‘s helpline on 0808 808 7777.

What is carer’s allowance?

Carer’s allowance is a UK benefit designed to help people who have caring responsibilities for more than 35 hours each week.

Those eligible get £81.90 a week paid directly into bank accounts.

To qualify, the person you care for must already get one of these benefits:

• Personal independence payment (PIP) – daily living component
• Disability living allowance – the middle or highest care rate
• Attendance allowance
• Constant attendance allowance at or above the normal maximum rate with an Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
• Constant attendance allowance at the basic (full day) rate with a war disablement pension
• Armed forces independence payment

You don’t have to be related to the person or live with them to apply.

But if you share caring responsibilities with someone else, only one of you can make a claim.

The type of care you provide can vary, but includes things such as helping with washing or cooking, taking the person to medical appointments or helping out.

with household tasks such as shopping or organising bills.

To get the benefit, you must also meet a certain set of criteria:

• You must be 16 or over
• You have to spend at least 35 hours a week caring for someone
• You need to have been in England, Scotland or Wales for at least two of the last three years (this does not apply if you’re a refugee or have humanitarian protection status)
• You must normally live in England, Scotland or Wales or live abroad as a member of the armed forces (you might still be eligible if you’re moving to or already living in an EEA country or Switzerland)
• You cannot be in full-time education
• You must not be studying for 21 hours a week or more
• You cannot be subject to immigration control
• You will also have to meet certain earnings criteria in order to get the benefit.

Your earnings must also be £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and expenses.

You can apply for the carer’s allowance online by visiting www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/how-to-claim.

WORD OF WARNING

In recent weeks, thousands of claimants for carer’s allowance have been forced to pay back as much as £20,000 after unknowingly breaching the rules.

George Henderson, 64, from Leyland in Lancashire, ended up with a £20,000 bill and had to sell his home to pay it back because of this simple error.

It all resulted from him wrongly ticking a box on his claim which declared he was unemployed when.

In fact, he was earning £7.50 an hour as a self-employed taxi driver.

New figures revealed that in 2022-23, 26,700 carers were asked to repay sums relating to earnings breaches.

If you breach the £151 earnings limit, you should try and proactively report it to the DWP as it is classed as a change in circumstances.

You can report any change in circumstances online via the Government’s website.

But you’ll need your National Insurance (NI) number to hand, details of the person you’re caring for and details of the change.

If you have been overpaid carer’s allowance, you will have to pay it back in full or in instalments via the DWP Debt Management platform.

This is also on the Government’s website.

If you don’t do this, the DWP can take deductions from your work salary, or even pass your case on to a debt collector.

If you don’t engage with the debt collector, it may then take your case to the county courts.

You can dispute an overpayment if you don’t agree with it, but you’ll need evidence as to why you claim not to have overpaid.

You can do this through what’s known as a “mandatory reconsideration,” which you can submit to the DWP online, by phone, or by letter.

The decision letter you receive from the DWP will contain the specific contact details to which you need to send correspondence.

Once the DWP has received your mandatory reconsideration, you will receive a “mandatory reconsideration notice” informing you whether it has changed its decision.

If you disagree with that outcome, you can appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal.

A judge will listen to both sides of the argument before making a decision.