State Pension and other benefits that reduce your Carer Support Payment
If you get any of the following benefits, Social Security Scotland will reduce the amount of Carer Support Payment you get:
- State Pension – learn more at GOV.UK
- Maternity Allowance – learn more at GOV.UK
- New Style Employment and Support Allowance – learn more at GOV.UK
- New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance – learn more at GOV.UK
- Incapacity Benefit – learn more at GOV.UK
- Severe Disablement Allowance – learn more at GOV.UK
- Widowed Parent’s Allowance – learn more at GOV.UK
- Unemployability Supplement (paid with War Pension)
- Unemployability Supplement (Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit - learn more at GOV.UK)
- War Pension Scheme: War Widows or War Widowers Pension – learn more at GOV.UK
- War Pension (Additional allowance for spouse element)
- Industrial Death Benefit
- Training Allowance - this is money the government or local council pays you to help cover your living expenses if you're on certain training schemes
You cannot get one of these benefits and the full amount of Carer Support Payment at the same time. This is because they're all designed to give you an income.
If you get payments from a personal or workplace pension, this will not affect your Carer Support Payment.
Universal Credit does not affect how much Carer Support Payment you can get. Instead the Department for Work and Pensions will reduce your Universal Credit.
To find out how other benefits can affect your Carer Support Payment, use these benefit calculators.
If your other benefits pay you more than Carer Support Payment
Some people are awarded Carer Support Payment with a payment amount of £0.
This happens if one of the benefits listed earlier on this page pays you the same as, or more than Carer Support Payment. This is known as having underlying entitlement.
This means you cannot get Scottish Carer Supplement or Carer Additional Person Payment.
But it's still worth applying. You might be able to get more money from other benefits, even if you do not get any money from Carer Support Payment.
Examples of how other benefits affect Carer Support Payment
The full amount of Carer Support Payment is £86.45 a week.
You get State Pension
In this example:
- you get more than £86.45 a week from State Pension
- you get awarded Carer Support Payment because Social Security Scotland recognise your role as a carer
In this example, you'd get £0 from Carer Support Payment. This is because State Pension pays you more than £86.45 a week.
This means you also cannot get:
- Scottish Carer Supplement
- any Carer Additional Person Payment
If you get less than £86.45 a week from State Pension, you may still get paid some Carer Support Payment.
You get less than £86.45 a week from another benefit
In this example:
- you get £60 a week from one of the benefits listed earlier, such as Incapacity Benefit
- you get awarded Carer Support Payment because Social Security Scotland recognise your role as a carer
In this example, you would not get the full amount of £86.45 from Carer Support Payment.
You’d get the £60 a week from your Incapacity Benefit, £26.45 a week from Carer Support Payment and £11.70 a week from Scottish Carer Supplement.
Giving you a total of £98.15 a week.
If you also get Carer Additional Person Payment, you can add on an extra £10.40 a week for each additional person you provide care for.
You get more than £86.45 a week from another benefit
In this example:
- you get £100 a week from one of the benefits listed earlier, such as New Style Jobseeker's Allowance
- you get awarded Carer Support Payment because Social Security Scotland recognise your role as a carer
In this example, you'd get £0 from Carer Support Payment. This is because your New Style Jobseeker's Allowance pays you more than £86.45 a week.
This means you also cannot get:
- Scottish Carer Supplement
- any Carer Additional Person Payment
But you may be able to get more from other benefits because you're recognised as a carer.