Students and carer support payment

On this page

• Introduction
• The roll-out of carer support payment
• Who is eligible
• How to apply
• The amount of benefit
• Which students are eligible?
• Backdating
• Can you get carer support payment and universal credit?
• Student funding and carer support payment

Introduction

A new benefit, called carer support payment, is being rolled out gradually throughout Scotland. This benefit replaces carer's allowance. Many of the rules are the same as carer's allowance, but there are some differences, especially for students. 

See more general information on carer support payment

The roll-out of carer support payment

Carer support payment was introduced for new claims in the pilot areas of Perth and Kinross, Dundee and the Western Isles in November 2023. Anyone in those areas who does not currently get carer's allowance, and meets the rules for carer support payment, can apply. Applications for carer's allowance can no longer be made in those areas.

The phased rollout for new claims in other areas of Scotland is:

• 24 June 2024 - Angus, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire
• 19 August 2024 - Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, East Ayrshire, Fife, Moray, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire
• 4 November 2024 - across Scotland

For those who already get carer's allowance, transfers to carer support payment began in February 2024, and should be complete by spring 2025. Around 130,000 cases will be transferred. The transfer is automatic and there is no application for carer support payment needed. It will take around 13 to 17 weeks. Once you're transferred, if you get any other benefits you should tell the DWP, HMRC and/or the local authority, as applicable, about your award to ensure that any extra amounts continue to be paid.

Who is eligible

The rules for carer support payment are similar to those for carer's allowance. It is not means-tested – although there is an earnings limit. It is administered and paid by Social Security Scotland (SSS).

You must:

• be 16 or over;
• provide regular and substantial care to a cared-for person (ie, 35 hours or more care per week - weeks run from Sunday to Saturday);
• care for someone in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit – ie, the daily living component of adult disability payment (ADP) or personal independence payment (PIP); disability living allowance (DLA) or child disability payment (CDP) care component at the middle or highest rate, attendance allowance or certain armed forces disability payments;
• not be 'gainfully employed' (ie, not earning more than £151 per week after subtracting tax, national insurance and certain other deductions);
• not be subject to immigration control; and 
• meet the residence tests.

You must not be entitled to:

• the carer element of universal credit in respect of a different cared-for person; 
• carer’s allowance; or 
• a young carer grant.

You cannot get young carer grant and carer support payment at the same time. If you’ve already had a young carer grant, you might be able to get carer support payment (but if it is backdated to cover when you got the young carer grant, you might have been overpaid). You cannot get young carer grant if you got carer support payment during a 'qualifying period' for young carer grant.

You cannot get carer support payment if someone else gets carer support payment, carer’s allowance or the carer element of universal credit in respect of the same cared-for person.

You must not be paid for the hours you spend caring, or provide the care as voluntary work. 

The care you provide might include:

• checking on the person you care for throughout the day to make sure they’re safe;
• helping to manage bills;
• helping with household tasks, like washing, shopping and cooking;
• picking up prescriptions;
• providing emotional support; or
• taking the person you care for to appointments.

How to apply

As with other Scottish benefits, applications can be made in a variety of ways. You can claim:

• online at mygov.scot/carer-support-payment/how-to-apply
• by phone on 0800 182 2222
• by downloading and posting a completed form

If you're a British Sign Language (BSL) user, you can use the contactSCOTLAND app to contact SSS by video relay.

SSS advise you to claim by phone, video call or in person if you want to backdate your claim for more than 13 weeks.

Before you apply for carer support payment, it’s a good idea to tell the person you care for. Once you’ve submitted your application, SSS will contact them by letter. This is to tell them that you've applied for carer support payment and that SSS will check their data, including what benefits they're getting.

The cared-for person can tell SSS if they do not think that carer support payment should be awarded.

In addition to getting help to apply from welfare rights workers or other advisers, people can also get help to apply from SSS’s local delivery teams.

Your claim is normally treated as made on the day it is received by SSS, provided it is properly completed. Unless you request backdating, your award begins on the Sunday before you claimed (or if you claimed on a Sunday, that day).

The amount of benefit

Carer support payment is paid at the same rate as carer's allowance - currently £81.90 per week. In addition, carers in Scotland who get carer support payment are entitled to a carer’s allowance supplement paid twice per year in a lump sum (£288.60 twice a year in 2024). Payment of carer’s allowance supplement will continue in this way until case transfer to carer support payment is complete. After that, it is likely to be paid along with carer support payment.

Which students are eligible?

Full-time students are not eligible for carer's allowance. However, many student carers will be eligible for carer support payment. The exception is that most students under 20 in full-time non-advanced education are not eligible.

The student carers who are eligible for carer support payment are:

• part-time students;
• full-time students aged 20 or over; and
• full-time advanced / higher education students under 20.

Students aged 16-19 on a non-advanced / further education course of ‘full-time education’ (more than 21 hours per week), or on approved training (ie, ‘No one left behind’ provision) are not usually eligible for carer support payment.

However, if you are a 16-19-year-old carer in full-time further education you are eligible for an award of carer support payment in circumstances in which you would be eligible for universal credit. This applies from 23 June 2024, and if you:

• do not have parental support – ie, are estranged, orphaned or similar;
• are entitled to DLA, CDP, ADP or PIP, and before you started your studies you had been assessed as having, or were treated as having, limited capability for work or limited capability for work and work-related activity for universal credit or employment and support allowance;
• are responsible for a child;
• are single and a foster parent of a child; or
• are a member of a couple and the other person is either not a student, or they’re a student but meet one of the above conditions.

Backdating

Carer support payment can be backdated for up to 13 weeks if you met the conditions during that time.

Your claim can be backdated for more than 13 weeks if you meet one of the following rules (there's also further backdating for people who have returned to the UK from abroad in certain circumstances, but this is not covered here - see our Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook 2024/25 for more).

• If you claim within 13 weeks of the person you care for being awarded a disability benefit, your claim is treated as made on the date you first qualified for carer support payment. If your entitlement under this rule would begin before carer support payment was introduced (19 November 2023) you can be treated as claiming carer's allowance for the earlier period and awarded carer support payment. Official guidance suggests that you may not be awarded carer support payment for any period before 19 November 2023 if you don’t meet the carer's allowance rules – eg, you were in full-time education. However, arguably that this is not what the law says.
• If you are a full-time student and claim carer support payment within 13 weeks of launch in your area, you can backdate entitlement to, at the earliest, 19 November 2023 (or to when you met the conditions, if later).
• If you are a 16-19-year-old in full-time further education who would be eligible for UC, and you claim carer support payment within 13 weeks of launch in your area, you can backdate entitlement to 23 June 2024, at the earliest (or to when you met the conditions, if later).

The rules above, for backdating awards for students, also say that if you claim more than 13 weeks after you become eligible for carer support payment, but you have good reason for claiming later than that, your claim can still be backdated.

Any backdated award will count as income for universal credit (if you get this). This may result in an overpayment of universal credit, which can be repaid over time from ongoing universal credit, or you could choose to repay it from your lump sum of backdated carer support payment.

Can you get carer support payment and universal credit?

If you are ‘receiving education’ for universal credit you can only get universal credit if you are in one of the groups of full-time students who are eligible for it. This is mainly student parents, students with a non-student partner, further education students under 21 who are without parental support (eg, estranged), and some disabled students. Student carers are not one of the groups of students receiving education who are eligible for universal credit.

See our universal credit and students factsheet for more about who counts as receiving education for universal credit, and when you can get universal credit if you're receiving education.

Student funding and carer support payment

Carer support payment does not count as income for Scottish Funding Council (SFC) or Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) funding assessments for student carers. This means that you can get your full normal student funding package, as well as carer support payment.

Carer support payment does count as income for SFC and SAAS household assessments for the wider household such as partners, and parents or guardians.