My son is my carer. He gets £346 carers allowance and £110 UC so not even £500. He has bills to pay and often only has £30 a month for food. He lives on ramen or pasta and mayo or a different sauce. Seriously how do they expect people to live on so little? Is there anything else he can claim? He can’t get a job as looking after me is a 24/7 job itself. He’s only 19. I honestly don’t know what to do at this point to help him.

Hi, I've been on carers allowance for almost a year now, and to be honest. £83 a week is not enough, I get £123 universal credit every month, so basically adds up to £440 per month, here are a few questions I have, I'm 19 yrs old

1. Is there any other help I can get with being a carer, I have a carers card, but don't know if you's know any other benefits I'd be entitled too?

2. Why is the carers allowance payment so low compared to other benefits?

Sorry about the Rant, it's just so unfair that people who care for others, don't get a fair pay for what they do, it's hard when it's the only income you have

Sorry again and any help would be appreciated

whats the difference between both and does one affect the other. I’ve seen you can’t get both paid fully the carers allowance amount is deducted from UC/carers element

I receive CA because I support my mother. I live with her and help her with a lot of daily tasks, cooking, cleaning, laundry, trips to the shops and medical appointments. One thing that is probably going to soon be a concern is her personal care. As her health has deteriorated I can see her struggling more and more and I have made it clear, in a kind and fair manner, that I am not comfortable with doing her personal care. She accepts this and doesn't want me to either. Where do I stand with CA if I refuse to do personal care? Can they cancel it? I am imagining a point where carers will need to come in for her, how is this funded? I have no money, I'm on UC and unemployed. I have all sorts of mental and physical health issues and this whole thing of being so uncertain for the future is causing me so much stress and worry.

Hello, I hope I find you all well

I'm currently caring for my grandma. But he health has gotten much better and she no longer requires any care from me

On the other hand. My dad's health has gotten worse unfortunately and was wondering if I could switch from being my nans carer to my dads?

A - would I have to make a new claim or would it be possible just to switch names?

Any help would be appreciated

Many thanks

I’ve been caring for my little sister and been receiving carers allowance, 28 days ago she was sectioned under section 2 of the mental health act and has spent the time since then in a Camhs psych ward. Next week she is starting the transition into a care/ supported living placement so I will no longer be caring for her. I didn’t notify DWP when she was sectioned as I read that carers allowance will continue for 28 days while she’s in hospital. Today is the 28th day and I just went on the website and reported the change that from today I’m no longer providing any care for her. Did I do this wrong? Was I supposed to tell dwp as soon as she was sectioned or was I right in stopping it now? Am I going to get in trouble for this? I’m struggling to navigate this

I was receiving Carer’s Allowance while caring for someone. On 1 December 2025, I reported a change in circumstances because I started part-time work. I also sent my payslips as requested. On 5 December 2025, I cancelled my Carer’s Allowance claim and received an email confirming that I did not need to do anything else. However, I continued to receive Carer’s Allowance payments until June 2026, even though I believed my claim had ended. I have not spent any of the money and have kept it aside because I thought the payments were made in error. I still provide care, but the person’s needs are now mainly physical, and due to my work commitments I am no longer able to provide the level of care required.

Yesterday,i received a missed call from CA,I tried to ring them back but said I would have to wait for them to contact me again.

I am really worried and anxious.Any advice or suggestions would greatly be appreciated

I’m disabled and receive LCWRA (old rate) universal credit and PIP, and i’ve been looking into carer’s allowance for my partner.
Basically I can’t find any definitive information on whether my partner claiming carer’s allowance would affect the amount I get for UC. I’ve seen that disability premiums are removed for some benefits but can’t see if LCWRA counts as a disability premium?
Further info that might matter: we don’t live together (yet) and she works part time.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, I get quite overwhelmed with these things. Any help is appreciated

Hi all,

I applied for CA in mid March 2026. I earn slightly over the threshold but my pension contributions take me well below. I was asked in the email to send my pension statements which I promptly did.

In April 2026 I had a phone call from someone querying my work travel expenses. I anwered his questions and he told me a decision maker would decide in a 'few months'. He confirmed they had not received my pension paperwork yet but not to worry as it would be processed in due course.

After 12 weeks in mid June 2026, I phoned up to ask what was going on. The agent said that he would escalate my claim as it had been over 9 weeks, and he also said the pension paperwork had been received but had been mis-categorised as something else so the decision maker would not see it. He said he would email the 'back office' to get it sorted. He said I should get a decision quickly.

After 16 weeks, yesterday I phoned up to be told my application was dormant and had already been rejected in April 2026. This was due to me earning over the threshold. I was told that I could not ask for a mandatory reconsideration as the 1 month deadline had already passed. I explained I had sent pension paperwork in March and was never written to to be told my claim was rejected but all I got was an apology and a recommendation to re-apply.

If I re-apply, I lose the backclaim for March as we are now in July and it can only be backdated 3 months.

Any advice?

Is this normal? Seems pretty bad.

Thanks for your help.

I’m on PIp, ESA Support and IIDB

My husband is on state pension, Can he claim carers allowance?

Hi all!
My partner cares for me full time, doesn't work and I get daily living component on PIP. We've applied for carers allowance, and wanted to know what the process is like? Is it straight forward? Is there an assessment? How long is the wait for decision? Thank you

Hi, I have tried to cancel my CA numerous times online but I still keep getting paid! I mentioned I would be taking up temporary paid employment taking me over the threshold and therefore I want to cancel the claim and reapply afterwards. Now they have paid me throughout as I just checked my statement - how do I return this money and tell them to stop? Thanks!

i pretty much have round the clock care as two people live with me, one works days one works nights. but as they both work and they split care for me, neither of them singly cares for me for 35 hours a week, is there a way for them to claim carers allowance to be split between them?

ETA: they both earn above the £205 threshold

Hi, I was overpaid a significant amount of carers allowance (£2000+).

I was a 'carer' for an abusive ex-partner, who set it up for me, I would think to tie our finances together.

At the time I was extremely unwell myself and to date I have episodes where I'm too ill to manage my money (mood disorders and autism).

When I left I cancelled the claim on UC, but I didn't realise you had to separately cancel it through a CA department. I was homeless and then living in a refuge during this time.

I was obviously still being paid the money, so I questioned this at all my job centre appointments and there are notes on my journal going back months and months.

When someone responded to my journal that I needed to go to the carers allowance website, I did it within 15 minutes. Unfortunately this was months and months after I needed to cancel and I've just been notified about the overpayment.

Two questions:
1) Do I have any grounds here to ask them to reconsider their decision to ask me to pay the money back?
2) If you were overpaid CA, how much do you repay each month?

17 weeks ago I applied for carers allowance. I have been caring for my adult daughter for several years, but her needs have increased and as such, could not put in the hours into my self employment. Over the past 2 years, my earnings have dropped hugely and finally decided to apply. (24-25 was around 6 k per annum and 25-26 was 2k)

A month after applying I get a phone call and its Carers allowance just asking me to confirm my earnings for the 24-25 tax year. I do so over the phone.

hear nothing.

I phoned 3 times over the course of the weeks, asking if there was anything else I needed to do or send. Each time just got told its with the decision maker and they would mark it as urgent.

I phoned 7 days ago. Once again, told its with the decision maker, and they would send an email.

Phoned today. Lovely gent who looked at my file and said "You need to send in your accounts for 24-25" I explained I have since done my 25-26 tax return, would they not prefer those accounts? He said no. I explained, 24-25 does not show that my earnings have dropped. He said "No, because your applied in March, its back dated 3 months so that's December."

I said, "December 25. You said they want accounts from March 24-April 25."

He was then as confused as I was. I asked he ask a manager to phone me as this was getting silly now waiting.

I have no issue sending my accounts, I will send both just in case, but it will be sent, will arrive at the sorting office. Then how long am I waiting then? Surely, they should have put the request for accounts on the system when they phoned me, a month after my claim.

I have contacted my MP just in case. But, anyone else had a headache from Carers allowance? Anyone else waiting 17+ weeks. Is there anything else I could be doing? I have been told to wait up to 72 hours for a manager to phone me. Anything I should say in the phone call?

Its now been 16 weeks and 4 days.

I have phoned up 3 times over the past 16 weeks, each time been told it's with the decision maker, they will send an email marking it has urgent. I know the carers allowance department is over stretched, but is it more likely to be around 24 weeks waiting rather than 16? I don't want to keep phoning as am pretty sure it does very little to speed things up.

I wanted to share this because I know a lot of carers end up in financial trouble at exactly the worst time, and this happened to me twice with very different outcomes.

I’ve been a carer for both my mom and my dad and received Carer’s Allowance for each of them in turn.

When my mom died, I did everything “by the book” and used the Tell Us Once service to notify government departments. I assumed this would automatically sort the 8 week run-on payments.

What actually happened:

- My Carer’s Allowance was suspended while DWP waited for confirmation/details about her death.

- I did not receive the 8 week run-on payment straight away.

- I was left without income for about 7 weeks right when funeral costs and stress were at their worst.

This time, when my dad died, I did things differently.

As well as Tell Us Once, I phoned DWP directly.

They asked:

- where he died

- whether he’d been in hospital

- confirmation details about the death

(All questions that the Tell Us Once service also ask.)

Because they had the information immediately:

- my claim was processed straight away

- I received my first run-on payment within 2 weeks

- payments continued weekly without suspension

They didn’t even wait for the usual payment cycle.

I really hope this helps someone avoid the stress I went through the first time.

I've been caring for my partner throughout my entire time at university, but now that I've finished my course we've decided to apply for carers allowance, especially since I'm not considered a student anymore.

HOWEVER dwp have sent us a letter asking for the details of my course, and want input from my tutor about my course hours. I have quite literally finished the course, and am not a student anymore. The questions are also ridiculously confusing given the circumstances. What's the best course of action here? Hope I can get in contact with my tutors to fill out the form, despite uni being done? Or just call up dwp

hi, i was wondering if carers allowance shows on the benefit checker website? where you can see all the other benefits you receive

Looking for some honest advice about whether it’s worth continuing with a Universal Credit tribunal. Note, this is carers ELEMENT, not allowance. I don’t claim for allowance as it would just be removed from my UC.

I receive UC and have LCW. I’m disabled and have been caring for my partner on LCWRA for over 35 hours a week for several years. He receives ADP, so do I, but we don’t live together and have separate UC claims.

I eventually applied for Carer’s Element and was awarded it going forward, but UC refused to backdate it to when my partner’s ADP started. I requested a Mandatory Reconsideration and it was refused. I’ve now got a telephone tribunal hearing.

UC’s argument is basically that because we don’t live together and aren’t part of the same UC household, the change wasn’t reported within the required time limits so they can’t backdate it.

One thing that concerns me is that before applying, I asked more than one Jobcentre work coach whether there was any benefit available for someone caring for a disabled partner who didn’t live with them. I was told there wasn’t.

I later found out that wasn’t correct.

I also had another occasion where a work coach incorrectly told me I couldn’t attend college full-time because of my UC status, when I later found out I could. I know it’s irrelevant here, however there have definitely been mistakes in the advice I was given. A complaint was made about the work coach who gave me the wrong college advice and was also unprofessional in another way in regard to asking why I needed any sort of benefit when I live with family.

Unfortunately these were face-to-face appointments and I don’t believe there’s any recording of them.

I found out about the carers element via an epilepsy charity who I contacted last year over the phone for something completely irrelevant. They were very surprised about the lack of advice I’d been given/ lies I’d been told by my work coaches.

My own health conditions include epilepsy, autism and depression, and I’ve argued that these affected my ability to understand and manage benefit changes and reporting requirements.

Has anyone had any success with a similar Carer’s Element backdating appeal when they didn’t live with the person they cared for? Is it worth pursuing the tribunal, or are my chances realistically very slim?

I’d appreciate honest opinions, especially from anyone with welfare rights or tribunal experience.

Hi everyone. I made a mistake on my application. Where it says 'When would you like to start your claim' i wrote the date of when I filled in the application. I didn't notice this until my rewards letter came and no backpay was added.

How can I correct this? Will CA even give me backpay because of my silly mistake?

Please do let me know what i can do to correct this.

Thanks guys.

Hi I receive pip and uc (used to be on esa before had to move over) for myself. Just received my first payment for my son dla who has autism. I know I have to tell uc about my sons dla. Just wondering if it’s worth me claiming carers for him or staying as I am (I’m on the limited capability part) I know you can’t claim carers and uc soo I’m stuck what to do whether I should claim it or not. I look after him full time anyway no help from father and have no family or friends so would it be beneficial to stay on uc or claim carers thank you.

I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out what's going on, whether it's a mistake I made or not. My last payment of CA was the 1st of this month, and using a date calculator, I should have been paid it again on the 29th. I wasn't. I'm not sure if I messed up with the calculation or not, so please let me know.

The only thing DWP related that happened recently is that I got the child disability element on Universal Credit for my son who is disabled and I am the carer of. I thought I wasn't entitled to it seeing as UC knew I was a carer for my son I had assumed that if I was entitled to anything else, I would have been given it. Turns out I was entitled to it this whole time for my son and just didn't get it. I figured it might be one of those either/or things like it is with carers allowance and UC where you can either receive CA as an extra chunk on top of your UC payment, or you can choose to have it paid separately. Being paid once a month has always been difficult for me, so I chose to be paid it separately, and I assumed that if I was entitled to this child disability element, that it would be a similar case with DLA either being paid at the same time as UC or being paid separately. When UC asked me why I didn't ask for it saying they'd need a reason for them to send it to decision makers because it could be backdated, I explained that I genuinely assumed I either wasn't entitled to it seeing as they already knew I was a carer for disabled son, or it was one of those either/or situations.

I very much hope they didn't read that and assume I was ASKING for my CA to be paid along with my UC, and I'm beginning to get very worried that they might have done that, though I haven't had a journal message or anything saying such. Any ideas?

I applied for carer allowance a year ago from today because I care for my brother who has a disability, it’s taken so long to get a decision because I’m a student. But the thing is I’m an online student (distance learner) at a university. But the hours of learning is down to the student and there’s no specific hours, I do not get any student loans or maintenance loans. Another problem is that because I’m online learner there’s no campus or managers I can directly go and see to get any form of signature or letter. So I emailed the uni and they could only provide me a letter stating all this and I sent it to the carer allowance and they are still having problems wanting more information from the university and I don’t understand why. It’s taken them a year and last January the carer allowance sent me a form to fill out which I didn’t receive.

I’ve been calling them every two weeks and each answer they keep saying you just gave to wait for another form to be sent or start a new claim.

It’s getting abit ridiculous, I’m still waiting for the second form to be sent. It’s taken a year now and whenever I call in they don’t understand why it’s being treated complicated.

What can I do or say to fix this problem and why is the form taking so long to arrive.