Carer’s Allowance

The Carer’s Allowance is an allowance that you can claim if you care for someone for at least 35 hours each week. The person you care for doesn’t have to be a family member.

How much is the Carer’s Allowance?

The 2024/25 allowance is £81.90 per week and you can either be paid weekly, or every four weeks. To qualify, you need to earn less than £151 a week outside this allowance and after Income Tax, National Insurance, and expenses (both expenses related to your carer work and expenses for self-employment, etc.).

You can only claim the allowance once, rather than for each person you care for. 

You’ll also be given National Insurance credits when you claim. These will entitle you to:

• Support from your council
• Council tax reductions
• Universal credit (if you’re on low income)
• Income support
• Pension credit, and more

To read more about National Insurance credits, head over to HMRC.

Is the allowance taxable?

Technically, yes.

However, you’ll only have to pay tax on it if you have other sources of taxable income (pension, profit from self-employment, etc.), and these combined with Carer’s Allowance take you over the Personal Allowance.