51É«APP

Anyone helping someone living with cancer, including a partner, parent, relative, neighbour or friend, may be considered a carer and be entitled to extra money from the government.

This page gives information on the benefits you may be able to claim as a carer and how Maggie's can help.

Claiming benefits as a carer

You have to be caring for someone for over 35 hours a week to claim benefits as a carer.

Caring could mean:

• helping with personal care
• offering emotional support
• helping with admin
• just being there for them

You might spread your 35 hours over the week or do it all in one block, for example, over a weekend.

You don't have to keep a record, but both you and the person you care for will need to confirm that you generally spend over 35 hours together.

What benefits am I entitled to as a carer?

Helping someone with cancer might result in a loss of income as well as extra costs, like travel or childcare.

You may be entitled to claim:

• Carer's Allowance (or Carer Support in Scotland)
• extra amount for carers within low income benefits

If you have your own health problems, you can claim carer's benefits and your own sickness and disability benefits too.

Carer’s Allowance

Carer's Allowance is a benefit available to carers over the age of 16 worth £86.45 a week.

In Scotland, Carer Support is available instead. It consists of three elements:

• Carer Support Payment (CSP), which is similar to Carer's Allowance and is worth £86.45 a week
• Scottish Carer Supplement, a weekly top-up payment of Â£11.10 a week for those receiving CSP.
  
• Carer Additional Person Payment, which is paid if you are getting CSP while caring for someone, and you also regularly spend a minimum of 20 hours a week caring for another person who also receives a qualifying benefit. It is paid at £10.40 a week.
  

To make a claim for Carer's Allowance or Carer Support, you must:

• be aged over 16
• care for someone over 35 hours a week
• know the person you are caring for is claiming disability benefits at the right rate
• earn less than £204 a week
• not be in full time education

Apart from your earnings, other income and savings won't affect your claim.

It can take a while to be approved, but your claim will be backdated. In the meantime, talk to a benefits advisor at your nearest Maggie's centre about other benefits you can claim.

Low income benefits

You might be entitled to claim low income benefits, and as a carer you may get an extra amount within them. The benefits you might be able to claim are:

• Universal Credit (UC)
• Pension Credit (PC)

You can claim for low income benefits as well as Carer's Allowance.

51É«APP out more about benefits you may be eligible for.

Benefits for carers who work

If you're working and caring for someone, you could still claim benefits, but it will depend on how much you earn.

If you are eligible for Universal Credit, you can still get an extra carer's amount regardless of your hours and earnings.

Carers who are unwell themselves

If you have your own health issues or a disability and are claiming benefits for this reason, you could claim for carer's benefits too.

Two people can act as carers for each other and both can claim carer's benefits alongside their own disability benefit.

The exception is Universal Credit, where you cannot get both the extra amount for carers and the extra amount for being unwell.

Other benefits if I am on a low income

Other benefits for carers on a low income as well as Universal Credit (UC) and Pension Credit (PC) include health benefits and other support from the council to help with:

• paying the rent 
• low or reduced earnings
• costs of looking after children
• health costs

51É«APP out more about other benefits.

Helping someone else with their benefits

As a carer, you may need to deal with benefits claims for the person you are looking after.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) will discuss their claim with you if:

• you can answer some security questions to show you know about the person's benefits situation
• you have consent from the person you are caring for (a requirement for Universal Credit only). They can do this via the journal section of their UC online account. Consent needs to be for a specific issue and will only last for up to a month at a time.

If the person you look after would like you to take over the full handling of their benefits claims, then you can become:

• an appointee for their benefits. The DWP can grant this so you can sign forms, discuss issues and report changes on their behalf
• Power of attorney, which is a more wide-ranging permission to take over full control of all finances. This is a more formal and complex process than becoming an appointee for benefits

Maggie's can help with money worries

Understanding which benefits might apply to you and how to claim can feel like navigating through a maze – but we're here to help.

You can get individual advice about your situation from one of our experienced benefits advisors at your nearest Maggie's centre.

A Maggie51É«APP™s benefits advisor can help you to:

• understand what benefits or other support applies to you if you have cancer or are caring for someone who does
• fill out application forms
• discuss issues that come up as you go through the claims process or if your circumstances change over time

Last review: May 2026 | Next review: May 2029