Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing the carer's allowance and (b) introducing a taper to ensure unpaid carers are not subject to any removal of benefits.

The Secretary of State undertakes a statutory annual review of benefit and pensions, and the value of Carer’s Allowance is protected by up-rating it each year in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

This Government will keep eligibility criteria and processes of Carer’s Allowance under review, to see if it is meeting its objectives.

Introducing a taper in Carer’s Allowance would significantly complicate the benefit with awards having to be manually adjusted on a weekly basis for some recipients declaring earnings. This would add to administrative costs and potentially increase fraud and error. Those also receiving Universal Credit would need to have that adjusted if their payment of Carer’s Allowance changed because of an earnings taper rate.

A taper could therefore only be introduced following significant changes to the IT system that supports payment of Carer’s Allowance.