Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional support he has made available to unpaid carers to alleviate the added financial pressure of the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government recognise the vital role unpaid carers play, and the pressures they are facing due to COVID-19. The Department for Work and Pensions introduced two important temporary measures in the spring to help unpaid carers through the COVID19 pandemic:

- unpaid carers are able to continue to claim Carer’s Allowance if they have a temporary break in caring, because they or the person they care for gets coronavirus or if either have to isolate because of it.

- providing ‘emotional support’ rather than just more traditional forms of care to a disabled person will also now count towards the Carer’s Allowance threshold of 35 hours of care a week.

These provisions have been extended until 12 May 2021. This will allow unpaid carers receiving Carer’s Allowance who need some extra flexibility in the way they provide care during the current emergency, so as to continue to protect themselves and the people they are caring for. We continue to work with carer organisations and others to identify and respond to the needs of carers during the pandemic.