Carer’s Credit is a National Insurance contribution. It can help ensure that carers do not lose out on some social security benefits, such as the state pension, because of gaps in their national insurance record.
It’s available to people who look after someone for 20 or more hours a week and who do not get Carer’s Allowance.
Carer’s Credit can help protect your state pension, and applies to both the basic and state second pension.
The weekly Carer’s Credit is designed to help if you would have difficulty in building a state pension. This might be because:
- You're caring for someone 20 hours or more a week.
- You're looking after someone who refuses to claim disability benefits or who finds it extremely difficult because of their condition. For example, this might apply if you look after someone with a mental illness.
- More than one person is looking after the person who is severely disabled and you're not the one claiming Carer’s Allowance (only one person can claim Carer’s Allowance for an ill or disabled person).
- You cannot claim Carer’s Allowance because you're looking after more than one person, but do not care for any of them for 35 hours a week.
To claim Carer’s Credit, you must care for 20 hours or more a week for someone who gets any rate of Attendance Allowance or Constant Attendance Allowance, or the middle or highest Disability Living Allowance care component. If the person you care for doesn't get one of these benefits, you'll qualify if you care for 20 or more hours a week for someone who has a signed certificate from a health or social care professional to confirm that the level of care being provided is appropriate. Find out more about this certificate on the DWP website.
From April 2010, Carer's Credit replaced Home Responsibilities Protection. If you were caring for someone before April 2010 and didn’t apply for Home Responsibilities Protection, you may be able to make a backdated claim.
To apply for Carer's Credit, call 0845 608 4321 or write to Carer’s Credit, Palatine House, Lancaster Road, Preston, PR1 1HB.
The government's official online source of information on benefits is Directgov.
