Unpaid carers: the rights and support you may not be claiming

If you look after a relative or friend who could not manage without you, you are an unpaid carer, and there is support for you as well as for them. An adult caring for another adult can ask the council for a free carer’s assessment, whatever their income. You may also qualify for Carer’s Allowance, a week of carer’s leave from work and a free flu jab, and the assessment can lead to help taking a break.

Carers Rights Day is Thursday 19 November 2026, and this year Carers UK has built it around one question: someone you know is a carer, but do they know it yet? People say “I just help Mum” for years before the word occurs to them. Recognising the role makes it easier to find the support below and to ask for it.

Are you a carer? Many people never use the word

A carer is anyone who gives unpaid help to someone who could not manage without it because of illness, disability or old age. The help can be personal care, but it is just as often the shopping, the medicines, the appointments, the forms and the worry. You do not have to live with the person or be related to them. Carers UK’s polling this year found 1.1 million people had left work to care in the past two years, around 1,500 a day.

Recognition matters, because services often miss carers. CQC’s State of Care report, published on 23 October, says unpaid carers are less satisfied with services than the people they care for, describe long delays, and in some cases are not offered an assessment at all; its word was “forgotten”. A good start is to tell your GP surgery, which can record you as a carer, and your council.

The carer’s assessment: the right most people have not used

Under section 10 of the Care Act 2014, a council in England must assess a carer who may need support, whatever the level of care they give and whatever their finances. The assessment is free, and any carer aged 18 or over who looks after another adult can ask for one. Parents caring for a disabled child ask the council’s children with disabilities service instead. The assessment is about you: your health, your work, your sleep, whether you want to keep caring at all, and what would make it possible. It is separate from any needs assessment of the person you care for, so you can ask for it whether or not they have had one.

It can lead to a written support plan: someone to take over so you can have a break, help with transport or housework, training, advice on benefits and an introduction to the local carers’ centre. Go in prepared. These questions get the most out of the hour.

• What would happen to the person I care for if I were ill for a week? Who would step in, and how quickly?
• Is a regular break available, how many hours, and is it a service or a direct payment I arrange myself?
• What is the emergency plan if I cannot get there, and who holds a copy?
• Which benefits should we both be checked for, and who will do the check?
• Can I get help with the cost of travel, parking at the hospital or equipment at home?
• When will this plan be reviewed, and who do I call if things change before then?

For an adult carer, the request goes to the council’s adult social care team. In some boroughs a carers’ organisation carries out the assessment, and in all five one runs day-to-day support, advice and groups. Both are worth a call, and Carers UK’s free helpline on 0808 808 7777 can talk you through the process first.

The money: Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Credit and what the Budget changed

Carer’s Allowance is £86.45 a week in 2026/27. You may qualify if you are 16 or over and care for someone for at least 35 hours a week. Your earnings must be £204 a week or less after tax, National Insurance and certain expenses. You cannot be in full-time education or studying 21 hours or more a week, and residence rules apply. The person you care for must get a qualifying benefit, such as Attendance Allowance (£76.70 or £114.60 a week, not means-tested), the daily living part of PIP or the middle or highest care rate of DLA. GOV.UK has the full rules.

Three things catch people out. Carer’s Allowance is taxable. If you get a State Pension of £86.45 a week or more, it is not paid on top, though an underlying entitlement can still raise Pension Credit. And it can reduce a severe disability addition in the benefits of the person cared for. So ask a welfare adviser at the carers’ centre, Age UK or Citizens Advice to check which benefits suit you both before either of you claims.

Carer’s Credit is a National Insurance credit, not a cash payment. It is for carers aged 16 or over and under State Pension age who care for 20 hours or more a week, so the caring years still count towards your State Pension. The person you care for normally needs a qualifying benefit; if they do not get one, a health or social care professional can sign the Care Certificate on the form.

The Budget on 28 October 2026 promised to end the earnings cliff edge, under which going £1 over the limit loses the whole allowance; in future earnings above the limit will reduce it pound for pound. The Treasury expects that to help around 48,000 carers, but it needs a new DWP computer system and will not start until 2030/31. This winter the £204 limit still applies, so if your hours or pay change, tell the Carer’s Allowance Unit straight away rather than risk an overpayment.

Your rights at work

Since 6 April 2024, employees have had a right to unpaid carer’s leave from their first day in a job. It is for giving or arranging care for someone with a disability, care needs because of old age, or an illness expected to last more than 3 months. You can take up to one working week in any 12 months, meaning your usual working pattern, as days or half days.

Give notice: at least 3 days for a day or half day, and twice the length of the leave for longer. You do not have to prove the person’s care needs. Your employer cannot refuse, but can postpone it if your absence would seriously disrupt the business, and must then agree another date within a month. Emergencies are covered separately by time off for dependants.

You can also ask for flexible working from day one. It is a right to ask, not to a new pattern: your employer must decide within two months, unless you agree longer, and can refuse only for one of the business reasons the law lists. These are employee rights; Acas publishes plain guides to both.

A break that works: what a home care team adds

The council assesses needs first and tells you whether a financial assessment or a contribution applies. It may then arrange the care, or give a direct payment so you choose the provider. If the need is urgent, say so when you call. Plenty of families also pay privately for a regular few hours. Either way, what makes a break work is not the hours on paper but whether you can actually stop while you are away.

So with Marigold, respite starts with a handover. Before the first visit we go through the routine you have built: when meals happen, which products your relative prefers, what settles a hard afternoon. It goes into the care plan, so the carer who arrives already knows how the day runs. While you are out, the carer follows that plan and contacts you if anything needs your attention.

Each visit is recorded in the digital care record, and family members your relative agrees to can see the visit notes. Every Marigold carer is DBS-checked and trained to the Care Certificate standard. Respite is one clear rate, £21.96 an hour, with no weekend or bank holiday surcharge. It can be arranged at short notice if you fall ill or have a hospital appointment, subject to availability. If the council funds care as a direct payment, it can pay for the support it has agreed from a provider you choose, including us.

What to do before 19 November

• Register as a carer with your GP

  It helps the practice know about you. If you are the main carer for an older or disabled person, or get Carer’s Allowance, you can have the NHS flu vaccine free until 31 March 2027; ask your GP or pharmacist.

• Ask the council for a carer’s assessment

  Use the number or online form for your borough above. Take the checklist with you, and ask for an emergency plan to be written down.

• Get both benefit positions checked together

  Ask a welfare adviser which benefits apply to you both, and how a new claim would affect what either of you already gets. The person you care for may already have a qualifying award, such as PIP or Attendance Allowance.

• Tell your employer, in writing

  Ask about carer’s leave and flexible working. Both are rights from your first day, and the conversation is easier before a crisis than during one.

• Go to a Carers Rights Day event

  Harrow on 19 November, Hounslow on 21 November, or ask your carers’ centre what is on. Advisers are in the room; bring your questions.

Questions families ask

Can I get Carer’s Allowance if I get the State Pension?

Not on top of each other: the two overlap, so if your State Pension is £86.45 a week or more you will not be paid Carer’s Allowance on top. It can still be worth claiming, because an underlying entitlement can increase Pension Credit. Ask an adviser to check your figures.

Do I have to live with the person to count as their carer?

No. You do not have to be related to them or live with them, for Carer’s Allowance or for a carer’s assessment. What matters is the care you give and, for the allowance, the hours and your earnings.

Can I have a carer’s assessment if my dad refuses help?

Yes. The assessment is your right as a carer and does not depend on him accepting services. It can also be a calm way to start talking about help for him.

What help is there if I care for a disabled child?

The adult carer’s assessment above is for adults caring for adults. Parents and carers of a disabled child contact the council’s children with disabilities service instead, which can assess the family’s needs.

Is Carer’s Allowance going up?

Rates are set each April; the 2027/28 figure is announced with the other benefit rates after the Budget. The bigger change, the end of the earnings cliff edge, is promised for 2030/31 and does not alter the £204 limit this winter.

Facts in this guide were checked against the sources below on 2 November 2026. Benefit rules depend on individual circumstances; GOV.UK, the Carer’s Allowance Unit, your council and a welfare adviser at Citizens Advice, Age UK or your carers’ centre have the final word for any one person.