Scottish Carer's Assistance: consultation

Section 3: Changes to Scottish Carer's Assistance

When we first launch Scottish Carer's Assistance, we plan to keep many of the eligibility criteria the same as Carer's Allowance to make sure we don't create a 'two-tier system' where carers already getting Carer's Allowance are treated differently from people who have newly applied for Scottish Carer's Assistance.

In the medium to longer term we want to make further changes to this benefit. We have worked with carers, and the organisations who support them, to look at options for changes to help address some of the key concerns about how Carer's Allowance currently works and what improvements could be made.

As well as the improved service we will deliver from launch, we propose to make significant changes as soon as we can and particularly once we have transferred all cases from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland, so all eligible carers are getting Scottish Carer's Assistance instead of Carer's Allowance. We want to allow as wide a group of people as possible to feed in their views on these changes and on how we should prioritise the changes we make.

The priority changes that we propose are:

• removing education restrictions so carers can study full-time and be eligible for Scottish Carer's Assistance
• allowing carers to add together hours spent caring for more than one person
• increasing the time carers will receive Scottish Carer's Assistance from eight to twelve weeks after the death of a cared for person
• extend the period of payment when a cared for person goes into hospital or residential care from four to twelve weeks
• increasing the earnings limit so carers can earn more and still get financial support

This section sets out the changes that we are proposing to make alongside further information on our work to look at other options, including the changes we could make following the five priority changes, and whether we should look at new support for long term carers in the future.

How we will make changes

Carers and the organisations who support them have told us that they would like eligibility criteria for Scottish Carer's Assistance to change in a number of ways in future – so that more people can get support, and support would continue in some situations where it would currently stop. However, we will not be able to make all of the changes people want to see, or make all the changes at once, for a number of reasons.

Primarily, of all the benefits we have taken responsibility for, Carer's Allowance has the most complex links with other UK Government benefits and support, and many carers rely on this support which is linked to Carer's Allowance^[63]. This means we need to work with the Department for Work and Pensions to understand what needs to be put in place to ensure that, for carers getting Scottish Carer's Assistance, entitlement to those reserved benefits will be maintained. We want to make sure that carers getting Scottish Carer's Assistance do not lose out on other financial support they are eligible for which is currently linked to Carer's Allowance.

We also need to think about the resources which will be needed to make changes – the funds we would need to pay additional elements of Scottish Carer's Assistance. The number of carers eligible for the current benefit is expected to increase each year even without changes to eligibility criteria. Any extra investment we make therefore needs to be funded from the Scottish budget. Whilst we want to do all we can to support carers, we have to also fully consider how affordable and sustainable changes are, as part of wider budget planning to ensure our resources are targeted where they will deliver the most benefit. We are aware that we are already due to be investing £361 million in Scottish social security benefits in 2022/23 over and above what we expect to receive from the UK Government, rising to £764 million by 2026/27^[64]. This must be funded from the Scottish Government's budget.

In addition, making changes could affect Social Security Scotland and their ability to support people and provide a good service. Changes will mean application systems and processes need to be updated, new guidance and training for staff created, and new information for carers and organisations needs to be provided.

All of this means that decisions on what changes we can make, and when we can make them, will need to take into account the impacts on carers' other financial support, how changes can be delivered, and budget considerations, as well as the feedback we get from this consultation.

We also need to think about how the options suggested for change fit with wider improvements we are making for unpaid carers, and the people they care for. We are committed to delivering a National Care Service by the end of this parliament. We are also looking at the potential for a Minimum Income Guarantee for all. This work will have a big impact on the everyday lives of carers, and the people they care for.

To decide which changes we would propose to make as a priority, it was important that we used a clear process, involving carer views and strong evidence. We have set out more information on this process below.

The decision making process

A process called a Multi Criteria Analysis was carried out to look at different changes which could be made to the current Carer's Allowance eligibility criteria. The process looked at 15 different options, which were developed from our work with carers, support organisations and wider research.

The Multi Criteria Analysis process involved ranking each of the options in terms of how well they would meet a set of 18 criteria. The criteria were based on the aims for Scottish Carer's Assistance (see pages 16 to 18), and the social security principles^[65]. For example, options were ranked in terms of how they would affect equality, their potential impact on poverty, how simple they would be for carers and Social Security Scotland to understand and use, and the impacts they would have on other benefits and support, as well as the costs of introducing them. More information on the process was published with the consultation on our website.

In the next section, we set out the options we looked at, and the changes we are proposing following the Multi Criteria Analysis. We have included some of the evidence from the process which has informed what we propose. The options we looked at were designed to address the following key issues with the current benefit which were identified by carers:

1. barriers to education or training

2. the need to better recognise different caring situations – for example where carers care for more than one person, or where a person in receipt of disability benefits has more than one carer

3. the need for more stability in support, where payments are affected by life events affecting the person being cared for, or their benefits

4. barriers to taking on, or staying in, paid work

5. a lack of recognition or support for a wider group of unpaid carers, including those who get 'overlapping benefits' instead of Carer's Allowance

1. Access to education and training

At the moment, carers studying more than 21 hours a week are not eligible for Carer's Allowance^[66], on the basis that financial support for full-time students is separate from the current benefits system. However, we know that this can be a barrier to some carers accessing full-time education. Also, while there are valid reasons for separating student support from the benefits system, this may be a problem for student carers in particular, who are less able to support themselves through paid work. Some carers may also be unable to access student support. Carer support organisations have reported hearing from carers who feel unable to take up higher education because of the current Carer's Allowance restrictions, or confusion about what the rules mean.

Proposed change

We propose to remove education restrictions from Scottish Carer's Assistance.

This change would help to reduce barriers to education, and help those people who wish to maintain their caring role alongside studying. It could improve work prospects for carers by allowing them to improve their qualifications and skills.

This change would bring eligibility in line with that for carers who study for less than 21 hours. It would help provide a more stable income through caring and studying and would remove the stress and difficulties from having to move from one system of financial support to another. It would also recognise that students caring for 35 hours or more a week may find it more difficult to take up paid work.

Compared to other changes we considered, this change is targeted more at younger carers. Removing barriers to education could be positive for all carers, but the impact of access to education will be greater for young carers in terms of their future prospects. Because of the much higher numbers of women who are unpaid carers, it could also help reduce barriers to education and paid work for women.

For carers who access student financial support at the moment, Carer's Allowance may be taken into account in their assessment and affect the amount of financial support they get. Our aspiration is to make sure that carers who do get student financial support would be better off overall from being able to get Scottish Carer's Assistance, if we make this change. We would link up with wider work on student financial support ahead of this change to ensure it meets the needs of carers.

We propose to make this change as a one of our five priority changes. We will look for opportunities to introduce this sooner than the end of case transfer, if we are assured that doing so would not put carers' benefits or wider delivery of Scottish Carer's Assistance at risk.

Question 26: Do you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to allow carers in full-time education to get Scottish Carer's Assistance? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 27: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to allow carers in full-time education to get Scottish Carer's Assistance, or any other information you want to share on this question.

2. Recognising different caring situations

Carer's Allowance is only paid where 35 hours or more of care is provided each week by one person, for one person. This means that where someone is caring 35 hours or more a week but this care is split across two or more people in receipt of disability benefits, they aren't eligible to get the benefit. Where people are sharing care for the same person in receipt of disability benefits, only one of them can get Carer's Allowance. Carers have told us that where caring has a similar impact on unpaid carers' lives, it is unfair that they don't have the same access to carer benefits.

We are already committed to providing extra support for those caring for more than one person, where they have two significant caring roles. This will be done through the Carer's Additional Person Payment (more information in section 2). We have also considered the option to allow carers to add together hours spent caring for different people to meet the 35 hours a week caring requirement.

This option would mean that carers looking after two people for a total of 35 hours would have the same access to Scottish Carer's Assistance as people providing this care for one person. Both of the cared for people would need to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit. There wouldn't be any rules on the number of hours a carer would need to be caring for each person, as long as it added up to 35 hours overall.

As the information we have about people caring for multiple people is limited, it is difficult to assess how well this option would address inequality and poverty.

We know from discussions with carers and support organisations that this change could make applying for support more complicated. Where there are two cared for people, details for each would need to be included on application, and there would be twice as many changes of circumstances for the carer to report and Social Security Scotland to process.

Proposed change

We propose that after introducing the Carer's Additional Person Payment, our next priority in the area of recognising different caring situations would be to allow carers to add together hours spent caring for two people to reach the 35 hours per week caring requirement.

At this stage we suggest that hours could be added across just two cared for people. We would then monitor how this works before we consider allowing hours to be added across more people. We would work with carers to make sure systems would be designed to make this as simple as possible.

We propose to make this change as one of our five priority changes. We will look for opportunities to introduce this sooner than the end of case transfer if possible and if we are assured that doing so would not put carers' benefits or wider delivery of Scottish Carer's Assistance at risk.

We also looked at an option to allow more than one carer to get Scottish Carer's Assistance for care of the same person in receipt of disability benefits. We know that when a disabled person needs a lot of care, this is sometimes shared between more than one family member or friend. We found that this option would add complexity to applications and operations. Having more than one carer for the same person would be likely to require additional checks on the caring situation, a significant shift in how the benefit currently works.

In terms of equality, while we lack information on the group that would be affected by this change, we anticipate this could largely affect couples caring for children or parents. It would help carers who share care with someone else but may exclude those caring alone – groups such as lone parents.

We do appreciate that for people who are sharing care for someone who needs a lot of support the current rules can feel unfair. We therefore want to keep the option of allowing multiple carers for one person in receipt of disability benefits in consideration for the future, taking into account work to improve formal care and wider support for carers. This will involve the National Care Service where we have established a 'Social Covenant' steering group, which is made up of people with lived experience, to ensure the new service is designed around the needs of care users and supports the needs of care workers.

Question 28: Do you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to allow carers to add together hours spent caring for two people to reach the 35 hour caring requirement? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 29: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to allow carers to add together hours spent caring for two people to reach the 35 hour caring requirement, or any other information you want to share on this question.

3. More stable support where life events have affected the cared for person

Carer's Allowance is paid where the person being cared for is getting certain disability benefits. This means payments will stop when, or shortly after, the cared for person's benefits stop. When a cared for adult goes into hospital, Carer's Allowance will stop after four weeks, when disability benefits stop. When a cared for person dies, Carer's Allowance payments stop after eight weeks.

Carers have told us these periods are too short. Most recipients depend on Carer's Allowance and any linked payments to cover living costs. The cared for person going into hospital is likely to be a difficult time for carers, both practically and emotionally, with a lot of uncertainty about what will happen, and if or when the cared for person may leave hospital. The death of a cared for person will also, of course, be a very difficult time. Carers have told us that it is not reasonable to expect them to find other financial support in the current timescales at a time of stress.

In short, changes in a cared for person's disability benefits do not always match the needs of that person's carer. Unpaid carers need more stable incomes, and this is especially true at a time when they are having to cope with major life events which affect someone they care for.

Proposed changes

We propose to extend the period Scottish Carer's Assistance is paid after the death of a cared for person, from eight to twelve weeks. We also propose to extend the period of payment when a cared for adult goes into hospital or residential care from four to twelve weeks.

Increasing the current 'run on' of payments when the cared for person dies would be an extension of existing rules, so it is likely to be more manageable to deliver than changes which are more different. For example, it may be less challenging to protect linked support in reserved benefits as this would increase entitlement for four weeks after an existing run on period.

Both changes would provide more stability for carers. Where the cared for person had extended periods of going in and out of hospital, the carer would have a more reliable income. And, in other situations, the carer would have more time to adjust before an award ends. Alongside making these changes, we would also work to link carers to wider services and support to help them cope with and adapt to major changes in their caring role.

This should help carers on lower incomes – and the majority of recipients of Carer's Allowance are in the bottom half of income distributions^[67] – who are likely to have fewer resources to be able to cope financially with sudden changes in benefits. The changes will benefit carers of all characteristics, but, because of the nature of ageing, are likely to benefit a higher proportion of people caring for older people.

We also considered an option where payments would continue for a number of weeks after the cared for person's disability benefit stopped for any reason. Work on this option found it could make the benefit more complicated – for example we would need to look at whether carers would need to have been getting Scottish Carer's Assistance for a certain amount of time before they would be eligible for a 'run on', or if there should be a limit on the number of weeks payments could 'run on' in any period. In some situations, a cared for person may be challenging a decision to stop their benefits, and may apply for short-term assistance. There could be issues with how this would work alongside our plans to support carers during this time (set out in section 1).

We are also aware that some issues with Carer's Allowance payments being stopped are linked to how UK disability benefits have worked in the past, with awards being reduced or stopped after reviews, when disability assistance and care is still needed. Changes we are making as disability benefits are devolved could help to fix some of these problems for carers without changing Carer's Allowance rules. We do not therefore propose to take this option forward for the time being but we would keep this under review.

Question 30: Do you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to continue to pay Scottish Carer's Assistance for 12 weeks (rather than 8 weeks) after the death of a cared for person? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 31: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to continue to pay Scottish Carer's Assistance for 12 weeks (rather than 8 weeks) after the death of a cared for person, or any other information you want to share on this question.

Question 32: Do you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to continue to pay Scottish Carer's Assistance for 12 weeks when a cared for person goes into hospital or residential care? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 33: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to continue to pay Scottish Carer's Assistance for 12 weeks when a cared for person goes into hospital or residential care, or any other information you want to share on this question.

4. Access to paid work

We know that some Carer's Allowance recipients work, or want to work, but that current rules can make this difficult. It is estimated that over 10%^[68] of carers getting Carer's Allowance are also in paid work. We have heard from carers that the current earnings limit, which means carers can't earn more than £128 per week (after some deductions for things like Pension contributions)^[69] is too low, and limits opportunities. Also, if carers earn £1 over the threshold, they lose all of their Carer's Allowance award. This is often referred to as the earnings 'cliff edge'. This means that carers getting Carer's Allowance may have to reduce their working hours as their wages increase to keep their benefits, or end up worse off. Rules for those carers who wish to take up paid work should be as straightforward and fair as possible.

Proposed changes

We propose that increasing the earnings threshold is our first priority change in the area of paid work. This would increase the amount carers could earn while receiving Scottish Carer's Assistance and could be linked to 16 hours at a specific rate, such as the Real Living Wage^[70]. We considered 16 hours in particular, based on common working patterns for unpaid carers and those who work part time^[71].

Using the 2021-22 level of the Real Living Wage, which is £9.90 an hour, this would be around £158 weekly, compared to the current earnings threshold of £128. As carers in work would already need to provide information about work to Social Security Scotland and report any changes in earnings, making this change shouldn't make the system more complicated for carers. However, we would need to think about what this could mean for other benefits and how this could affect when we may be able to make changes. In particular, if some carers in Scotland were still getting Child Tax Credits – which are due to be replaced completely in future by Universal Credit – a change which would allow carers to work 16 hours a week could mean new interactions with Working Tax Credits, adding complexity and costs.

Increasing the earnings limit wouldn't fix the 'cliff edge' but it may be a problem for fewer carers as the limit is increased. We therefore want to look at how we could address the 'cliff edge'. This could be done by using a 'run on' period. Payments could continue for a number of weeks after a carer earns over the limit, which would give more stability. Support could also then be reduced gradually so carers would have more time to adjust. This could also help carers who have earnings which often change from one week to the next.

We also looked at an 'earnings taper' option. This would mean payments of Scottish Carer's Assistance would continue when a carer earned more than the limit but would be reduced as earnings increased. This would be similar to how Universal Credit works.

We found the run on option would be a better way to fix the 'cliff edge' issue for a number of reasons. In particular, a taper could introduce more interactions with the tax system, carers may need to report on their earnings more often, and would get payments at more varying rates, which could make getting the benefit much more complicated – particularly for carers getting other financial support.

In this area, we also looked at an option to remove the earnings limit and replace it with a limit on the hours per week carers could work (for example 16 hours). This would allow unpaid carers to take on higher paying jobs and earn more while working part-time. However, it would need a new system to be created to check carers' hours of work which could make the benefit much more complicated to use. As some carers on much higher incomes could then get the benefit, it would be less targeted at carers on lower incomes.

In terms of equalities, all of these options ranked similarly well. In addition to the impacts of the unpaid caring roles, the current earnings restrictions act as a barrier to work for unpaid carers and restrict earnings. Working age carers are also more likely to be in relative poverty than those aged over 65^[72].

As our second priority in this area, we propose introducing a run on period after earnings have exceeded the earnings threshold.

Question 34: Do you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to increase the earnings limit for Scottish Carer's Assistance? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 35: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposed future change to increase the earnings limit for Scottish Carer's Assistance, or any other information you want to share on this question.

Question 36: Do you agree or disagree that the earnings threshold should be set at a level which would allow carers to work 16 hours a week alongside their caring role? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 37: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree that the earnings threshold should be set at a level which would allow carers to work 16 hours a week alongside their caring role, or any other information you want to share on this question.

Question 38: Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to look at a 'run on' after a carer earns over the earnings limit in future? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 39: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree with the proposal to look at a 'run on' after a carer earns over the earnings limit in future, or any other information you want to share on this question.

5. Recognition or support for a wider group of unpaid carers

The main purpose of Scottish Carer's Assistance will be income replacement. Like Carer's Allowance, it would be targeted at a particular group of unpaid carers. Carers would need to be providing 35 hours of care or more a week for someone getting certain disability benefits, and there would be a limit on the amount carers could earn and still receive it. While every caring experience is unique, this does mean that on average, payments are likely to reach those who have a more intensive caring role, and who are more likely to be on lower incomes.

We know that some carers feel that the contribution of a wider group of carers should be recognised through Scottish Carer's Assistance. This includes in particular people who have only 'underlying entitlement' to the current benefit. That is, people who don't receive Carer's Allowance because they get another income replacement benefit instead^[73]. Most carers in this situation^[74] receive State Pension, the standard rate of which is £137.60 per week. This is significantly above the level of Carer's Allowance, even with the extra amount from Carer's Allowance Supplement. There are some carers with underlying entitlement who are on lower incomes. These carers can get extra amounts in other benefits, for example a Carer Addition in Pension Credit or a Carer Premium in Income Support^[75]. These can increase the amount of benefits received by £37.70 a week (2021/22 rates).

We looked at options to provide a new payment to carers with 'underlying entitlement'. While this would have a positive impact in terms of recognising the contribution of these carers, it would require significant investment which wouldn't be targeted at carers on the lowest incomes, and would leave out other groups of carers currently unable to get Carer's Allowance.

Proposal

A different approach could be a payment for long term carers, if it was felt that it would be an effective investment to recognise a wider group of carers. The aim of such a payment would be to recognise the impacts on carers' finances of a long term caring role. As an example of how this might work, it could be paid after a carer has met Scottish Carer's Assistance eligibility requirements for a certain period, whether they were receiving payments or had only 'underlying entitlement'.

This is a new policy idea. We would need to carry out further work, with carers, support organisations and others in government and public services to understand if it would be feasible, its impacts, and to work out more detail about who would be able to get a payment, and how much it should be. Given the number of carers who may be eligible for support, this would be a significant investment if taken forward. We wanted to use this consultation to take views on whether this kind of payment should be explored further and how it could work.

We also recognise the calls for support for a much wider group of carers, and in particular those caring for 20 or more hours a week, as highlighted by the National Carer Organisations^[76] and in the recommendations in the report of the Social Renewal Advisory Board in 2021^[77]. While we are targeting the support available through Scottish Carer's Assistance to those with the most intensive caring roles, the wider work to look at a Minimum Income Guarantee for all has the potential to have significant positive impacts on this wider group of carers.

We also understand the challenges for people providing care for someone who isn't getting a disability benefit. As disability benefits are being devolved and we are making significant improvements to how people are assessed for support, we felt that this could be less of an issue in future. At the same time, it was also considered that the introduction of the National Care Service by the end of this parliament, which aims to standardise support for unpaid carers across Scotland, may make other options to identify carers, without qualifying benefits, more simple in future. As such, we will continue to keep these options under review as we deliver Scottish Carer's Assistance and the priority changes we have proposed above.

Question 40: Do you agree or disagree that a payment for long term carers should be considered further? [Agree, Disagree, Unsure.]

Question 41: Please write the reason why you agree or disagree that a payment for long term carers should be considered further, or any other information you want to share on this question.

Question 42: If a payment for long term carers was considered, what should the payment look like and who should it be for?

Question 43: Please give us any other views you want to share about the proposals for future changes to Scottish Carer's Assistance.