UK carers are in line for some extra cash in the new financial year. It is as benefits increase and new cost of living payments start.
Millions of Brits are often unable to manage a paid job on top of their caring responsibilities and many can go unrecognised and unrewarded. However, there is financial support available from this month with six income boosts from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), reports LancsLive.
Benefit payments are going up by 10.1% and is based on the inflation rate for September 2022. It comes as the £67 monthly energy rebate comes to an end despite household bills persisting at a worryingly high amount.
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There are estimated to be more than 10 million unpaid carers in the UK, with most of them unable to take on a separate paid job on top because of their responsibilities to look after others. Some rely on the benefit system to get cash to live on, though only 1.36 million claim Carer's Allowance.
There's an option to claim Universal Credit and get the Carer's Element top-up. But if you already get Carer's Allowance, your Universal Credit is reduced by £1 for every £1 of Carer's Allowance you get, so it's worth bearing that in mind.
Here are the extra amounts carers will be due this year.
Carer's Allowance
HOW MUCH: Increasing from £69.70 a week to £76.75 a week for the 2023-2024 financial year. You can choose to be paid weekly or every four weeks. The increase comes into effect from April 10.
Carer's Allowance is a DWP benefit for those who care for someone at least 35 hours a week. Your earnings must be £132 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and expenses. There's no additional amount if you care for more than one person.
You will get National Insurance credits towards a state pension and may also be eligible for a council tax reduction from your local authority. The person you care for must be getting one of these benefits: Personal Independence Payment (daily living component), Disability Living Allowance (middle or highest care rate), Attendance Allowance, Constant Attendance Allowance (at or above the normal maximum rate with an Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, or at the basic full day rate with a War Disablement Pension), Armed Forces Independence Payment, Child Disability Payment (middle or highest care rate) or Adult Disability Payment (daily living component at the standard or enhanced rate).
Universal Credit Carer's Element
HOW MUCH: Increasing from £168.81 a month to £185.86 a month for the 2023-2024 financial year. The increase comes into effect from April 10.
Carer's Element is a top-up in addition to the Universal Credit standard allowance and any other components of the benefit you are awarded. If you get Carer's Allowance as well as Carer's Element, your Universal Credit is reduced £1 for £1, so you will be no better off financially by claiming both at the same time.
But note that while Carer's Allowance gives you Class 1 National Insurance credits, which help you qualify for some other benefits and state pension, with Universal Credit you get Class 3 National Insurance credits, which count towards your state pension only.
The Universal Credit standard allowance is increasing as follows:
- Single under 25 - increasing from £265.31 to £292.11
- Single 25 or over - increasing from £334.91 to £368.74
- Couple both under 25 - increasing from £416.45 to £458.51
- Couple one or both 25 or over - increasing from £525.72 to £578.82
Other elements of the benefit are also going up including those for children and limited work capability.
Carer premium
HOW MUCH: Increasing from £38.85 a week to £42.75 a week for the 2023-2024 financial year. The increase comes into effect from April 10. Payments are usually made every two weeks.
Carer premium is an additional amount paid with legacy benefits including Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Housing Benefit, and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).
Benefit cap rise
HOW MUCH: Increasing from £296.35 a week to £326.29 to week in Greater London and from £257.69 a week to £283.71 a week in the rest of the UK. Per month, that's a rise from from £1,284.17 to £1,413.92 in Greater London and from £1,116.67 to £1,229.42 elsewhere. This is for the 2023-2024 financial year, with the increase coming into effect from April 10.
The benefit cap is a limit on the state support a household can receive. Any amount over the cap is deducted and will be shown on your DWP statement. But not all benefits are taken into account when seeing if you have reached this maximum level.
Carer's Allowance is among the Government payments to be exempt from the benefit cap, so you'll be allowed to keep more of your money when the limit goes up. However, Universal Credit is among the benefits where amounts received count towards the benefit cap. But if you are on Universal Credit and care for someone with a disability, you won't be affected.
Pension Credit additional amount
HOW MUCH: Increasing from £38.85 a week to £42.75 a week for the 2023-2024 financial year. The increase comes into effect from April 10.
Pension Credit is an income top-up for people of State Pension age. It offers an additional amount for carers, similar to the carer premium on legacy benefits.
Around 850,000 people are believed to be missing out on Pension Credit. New applicants who put in a successful claim by May 19 can get it backdated to cover the qualifying dates for the £301 cost of living payment.
£900 cost of living payment
HOW MUCH: A cost of living payment of £900 is coming in three parts over the 2023-2024 financial year, with the first instalment of £301 due between April 25 and May 17. The other two parts are due sometime in autumn 2023 and spring 2024, with no dates yet announced.
Carers who claim Carer's Element as part of their Universal Credit will be eligible for the £900 cost of living payment going to those on means-tested benefits. You'll need to have had a Universal Credit assessment period that ended sometime between January 26 and February 25. The rules also say that the assessment period must not have resulted in a zero Universal Credit payment because your earnings or savings were too high or you received another benefit.
Legacy benefits are also among the means-tested benefits that qualify for the cost of living payment, along with Pension Credit, so people receiving those - with or without the carer premiums on top - will be entitled to the £900.
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