Social Security - Scottish Carer's Assistance consultation: Scottish Government response - easy read

Section 3: Future Changes to Carer Support Payment

There will be no big changes until all carers who are getting Carer's Allowance now are transferred over to Carer Support Payment. This is to make sure everyone is treated fairly between the two systems.

Access to education and training: What people told us

People were asked if they agreed with our plan to change the rules on education so that more people can study and get Carer Support Payment.

Almost everyone who responded agreed with this. People said this would help carers in education to get Carers Support Payment and develop new skills.

People said this would help carers with their mental and physical wellbeing. It would also give them a better chance of starting a career in the future when their caring role ends.

Scottish Government reply

We will change the rules so that more student carers can apply to get Carer Support Payment compared to the current Carer's Allowance. This was part of our future plans, but we have listened to carers who said they wanted to see changes sooner. So, we are introducing this from the start of the new benefit.

This will mean that many carers studying at college and carers studying at University will be able to receive the payment.

We are still thinking about those who are in school or taking school courses in college as they might be getting Education Maintenance Allowance and their parents or guardians may get other forms of support from the Department of Work and Pensions.

We are also working to make sure that student carers who get support from the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) are not worse off by getting the new benefit.

We will work with carer and other support organisations to make sure that student carers know what support they are entitled to.

Recognising different caring situations: What people told us

People were asked if they agreed with plans to let carers add together caring hours for two or more people to be able to get Carer Support Payment.

Most people agreed with these plans. People said that this would help to better recognise that not all caring roles are the same.

Some people said that people should be able to get Carers Support Payment based on the number of hours they spent caring, not the number of people they cared for.

Some people thought this could make claiming support more complicated. Some people asked for the number of hours spent caring each week to be reduced to less than 35 hours each week.

Scottish Government reply

We are looking at changing the rules so caring hours can be added together to meet the 35 hours of caring needed to get support.

Some people said that there should be an hourly payment for care. This would not be possible because Carer Support Payment is an income replacement benefit for people with intensive caring roles and not a payment for care.

We will also be giving extra support to those caring for more than one person through the Carer's Additional Person Payment as noted in Section 2.

We want to think about how adding together caring hours could work with a Minimum Income Guarantee. We need to think about this more and further details will be given at a later date.

Extending payments from 8 to 12 weeks when a cared for person dies: What people told us

When a cared for person dies, Carer's Allowance payments stop after 8 weeks. People were asked if they agreed with our plans to extend this to 12 weeks for Carer Support Payment.

Almost everyone who responded agreed with this. People said this would give people more time to grieve and get used to this big change in their lives.

People also said this would mean less financial stress for carers at a very stressful time and it would give carers time to get the support they need.

Some people thought that the amount of time Carer Support Payment is paid after the death of a cared for person should be longer in special cases.

Some people disagreed with the change and thought 8 weeks of support was enough time.

Extending payments from 4 to 12 weeks when a cared for adult enters hospital or residential care: What people told us

Carer's Allowance payments also stop after 4 weeks when a cared for person goes into hospital. People were asked if they agreed with plans to also extend this to 12 weeks for Carer Support Payment.

Most people agreed with this. Some people said that the caring role does not stop when the cared for person goes into hospital. It just changes and can also increase. Carers might also face extra costs like transport to and from the hospital. People said that carers need more support at this time to cover living expenses.

Some thought that 12 weeks was not long enough and that this should be longer in special cases. Some people told us that at the moment they have to re-apply for Carer's Allowance when someone goes into hospital which can take up to 12 weeks and they are still caring for their relatives/friends.

Scottish Government reply

Since so many people agree with extending Carer Support Payment in these situations, we will go ahead with our plans.

We will extend payments from 8 to 12 weeks when a cared for person passes away. We will do this as a priority after case transfer is complete. We will also extend payments from 4 to 12 weeks when a cared for person goes into hospital as part of our future plans.

We are also looking at how we can better support carers by linking them with support services, especially after the person they cared for passes away or their caring role ends.

We will look to set Carer Support Payments to £0 instead of ending an award when the person being cared for is in hospital. This would mean we could restart Carer Support Payments sooner and the carer would not need to reapply.

Access to Employment: What people told us

At the moment carers can earn £132 (2022/23 rate) a week through paid work and still get Carer's Allowance. If they earn £1 over this limit, they lose their whole Carer's Allowance award. This is sometimes known as the earnings 'cliff edge'. People were asked if they agreed with plans to raise the earnings limit for Carer Support Payment.

Most people agreed with these plans. People said it was difficult for carers to live off Carer's Allowance alone and that working stopped them from falling into poverty.

Many carers said that they are not able to get Carer's Allowance because they earn just above the limit. This means that many carers miss out on job opportunities because they fear it would stop the benefit.

People also said that the current system did not work for people whose earnings can change from week to week. Some people said the earnings limit should be removed completely.

Many people said it was good for them to work as it gave them a life outside of caring and helped their mental health. Many people said the earnings limit should go up further.

People said that when carers earn above the limit their awards should go down slowly, rather than stop immediately.

Access to employment – the earnings 'cliff edge': What people told us

People were asked if they agreed with the idea of a 'run on' of Carer Support Payment after a carer earns over the earnings limit. This would mean avoiding the 'cliff edge' and benefits being stopped right away.

Most people agreed with this idea. They said that it would help people whose income changes from week to week. Their award would not be stopped straight away and they would not need to reapply if their earnings went down again after this.

They also said that this would make it easier for the carer to adapt to any changes in their award or employment as they would have more money and stability.

Some people said earnings limits should not apply to carers and some thought more work should be done to look at earnings in Carer Support Payment in the future.

Scottish Government reply

Since most people agreed with our plans to make employment more accessible to carers, we will go ahead with these plans.

Some carers would like to remove the earnings threshold completely but this would change the purpose of Carer Support Payment being an 'income replacement' benefit.

There were different ideas on what hourly rate should be used and how this would work. We will keep looking at this before making any final decisions, as well as the run on when earnings go above the threshold.

Support for a wider group of unpaid carers

People were asked if they agreed that there should be a new payment to support more carers and recognise the care they provide. This could include those who cannot get Carer Support Payment because they get another benefit like the State Pension.

Most people said we need to think more about this. Some people said that carers who care for someone for a long time usually have to give up important life opportunities to care. They should get support to make up for this.

Scottish Government reply

This is a new policy idea and will be one of our future options for Carer Support Payment. We will keep working with carers, organisations, government and public services to understand how this would work, who should be able to get the payment, and how much it should be.

There are likely to be many carers who could get this support, which would help recognise a wider group of carers. But it would also cost a lot of money.

We need to look at it together with other work we are doing to support unpaid carers. These include the National Care Strategy and Minimum Income Guarantee. We will explore this future option further as a longer-term change.

Impact Assessments

It is important that our benefits work for all of Scotland's carers and the people and organisations that support them. In our work on Carer Support Payment, we have looked at how the decisions could affect people, businesses, and other groups. We do this through 'Impact Assessments'.

When we are looking at making changes to laws and rules, we need to think about things like disability, age, and sex. These are called protected characteristics.

We also need to think about how our new benefit will affect different people and communities, including children or those who live remotely or on islands, as well as businesses.

We will publish the Impact Assessments separately but will continue to use these to look at how well Carer Support Payment is working.