Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the claim career allowance eligibility rules on individuals already receiving existing benefits.

Carer’s Allowance cannot normally be paid with another income replacement benefit. It has been a long-held feature of the GB benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need. This includes Carer’s Allowance and State Pension.

Carer’s Allowance replaces income where the carer has given up the opportunity of full-time employment to care for a severely disabled person and is unable to undertake full time employment due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension for example replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules operate to prevent them being paid together, to avoid duplicate provision for the same need.

Where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit. In addition to Carer’s Allowance, carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £198.31 per monthly assessment period. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week.