Can I claim Carer's Allowance for looking after my Mum? A plain-English guide for UK families

Most adult children who care for a parent do not realise there is a weekly benefit they may be eligible for. Even people who have looked into it once and got confused tend to write it off, often when they are actually entitled. So before getting into the detail: yes, you may well be able to claim it, and yes, it is worth ten minutes of paperwork.

This is the plain-English version, with the bits the gov.uk page leaves until the bottom. Always check the current numbers on gov.uk, the figures here are for the 2025-26 tax year and update each April.

What Carer's Allowance is

Carer's Allowance is a UK government benefit, paid weekly, to people who spend at least 35 hours a week looking after someone who receives a qualifying disability benefit. It is currently £83.30 per week. That works out at about £4,331 a year if you claim for the full year.

You do not have to live with the person you are caring for, and they do not have to be a relative. Adult children looking after a parent qualify in principle, even if they live in a different town.

The three things both you and your parent need

Your parent must be receiving one of:

• Attendance Allowance (the most common one for over-65s).
• The daily living component of PIP (Personal Independence Payment).
• The middle or higher rate of Disability Living Allowance, care component.
• Armed Forces Independence Payment.

If your parent is not receiving any of these, you cannot claim Carer's Allowance, but it is worth checking whether they should be. Attendance Allowance is the big one most older people miss. It is not means-tested, it does not affect their pension, and it is paid for needing help with personal care: washing, dressing, taking medicine, supervision because of frailty or memory.

You must:

• Be 16 or over.
• Spend at least 35 hours a week caring for them. This includes physical care, helping with admin, taking them to appointments, supervision, ringing every day, anything that is genuinely about their welfare.
• Not be in full-time education (over 21 hours a week of supervised study).
• Earn less than £196 a week after tax, National Insurance, and 50% of pension contributions. This is the bit that catches people out.
• Be a resident of the UK.

The 35-hour rule, in practice

Thirty-five hours a week sounds like a lot, but the rules are more generous than they first read. The hours can include:

• Physical care during visits.
• Daily phone calls and check-ins, especially if they involve reassurance, prompting medication, or working out whether everything is okay.
• Time spent doing their admin: bills, GP appointments, prescriptions, post.
• Shopping for them and dropping it off.
• Travel time to and from their home.
• Being on call overnight if you are the person who would respond.

Add it up properly. Most families undercount.

The earnings trap

The £196 a week limit (£10,192 a year) is the bit that surprises people. It is not your gross pay, it is your earnings after certain deductions: tax, NI, half of any pension contribution, and reasonable childcare costs for under-16s while you are working.

It is also a hard cliff, not a tapered cut-off. If you earn £195 a week, you get the full £83.30. If you earn £197, you get nothing. So if your earnings are close to the line, look carefully at whether you can salary-sacrifice into your pension, or whether childcare costs are being subtracted correctly.

Self-employed people calculate it differently, it is profits averaged over a year, but the same principle applies.

The Severe Disability Premium trap

This is the one nobody tells you about. If your parent is single (widowed, divorced, never married) and on a means-tested benefit like Pension Credit, they may receive a Severe Disability Premium of around £83 a week on top. The condition for the SDP is that nobody is being paid Carer's Allowance for looking after them.

So if you start claiming Carer's Allowance, your parent loses their SDP. The net effect for the household is sometimes zero, or even negative. Always check what your parent is currently receiving before you apply. The Age UK money helpline at 0800 678 1602 is the best source: free, no agenda, and they know this trap.

What it can unlock

Even if the cash itself does not work out for your situation, applying for Carer's Allowance flags you as a carer in the system, which can unlock other things:

• National Insurance credits, important if you are not yet at state pension age and have gaps.
• A Council Tax discount in some local authorities (worth asking the council about, they do not volunteer it).
• A Carer's Premium on Universal Credit or Pension Credit, if you receive either.
• Access to local authority carer assessments, which sometimes lead to small grants, respite cover, or free training.

How to actually apply

The form is on gov.uk (search "Carer's Allowance"). Two routes:

• Online via Gov.UK Verify, fastest.
• Paper form (DS700) by post, slower but fine if you prefer paper.

You will need: your NI number, your bank details, dates you have been caring for them, an outline of what the care involves, your earnings if any, and their disability benefit reference number. The whole thing takes about half an hour.

The decision normally comes back in three to six weeks. If approved, payment is backdated to the date you applied, or the date the qualifying disability benefit started, whichever is later.

Common mistakes

• Not applying because you are "only" doing 30 hours. Count everything, including admin and travel and being on call. People consistently undercount.
• Applying before the parent's Attendance Allowance is in payment. The parent's benefit has to be active. Get theirs sorted first, then yours.
• Not declaring expenses. Childcare and 50% of pension contributions are deducted from your earnings, they often bring people under the £196 limit.
• Two siblings both claiming for the same parent. Only one person can claim Carer's Allowance for the same person at the same time. Decide together which of you it makes more sense for, often the one in the lower tax bracket.

Where Getwello fits

If you do apply, having a record of when you have been in contact with your parent, when you have visited, and when there has been a check-in or follow-up call is useful evidence if the DWP ever asks. Getwello's visit calendar and check-in log are a quiet but solid record of the hours you have actually been carrying. Not its main purpose, but a side benefit some families have flagged to us.

For other UK-specific bits, our piece on first steps when an older parent's health changes walks through the order of operations. If you have not yet sorted Lasting Power of Attorney, this is the time to do it.