Dawn shares the impact carer benefits have made

"It’s improving things for every carer out there” 

As a daughter, mum and grandmother, 50-year-old Dawn Williamson, from Penicuik in Midlothian, wears lots of different hats – but she added another in 2023 when she became a carer. 

In the January, the early years worker gave up work to care for her autistic daughter, who is now 12. 

Dawn says: “She wasn’t coping with me being away at work. By that point, I’d separated from my husband, and at that time in her life, she needed me there all the time. Quite often, she wouldn’t go to school. I’m here to support her and advocate for her, and try and keep her on a level.” 

In 2025, Dawn’s situation became more complicated. 

“At that time, I hoped to get a job, because it was just my daughter I was looking after and I thought I could work round her,” she explains. “But then she went to high school and things got worse. Then my uncle got really ill and I became his primary carer, and shortly after that, my mum took really unwell and I realised that they needed me too. 

“It’s a lot of time management, it’s a lot of driving, a lot of care calls – it’s exhausting.” 

Dawn has spent the last year juggling the needs of four different people – and she’s welcoming the news of increased financial support for carers with multiple caring responsibilities from Social Security Scotland. 

Carer Additional Person Payment, worth £10 a week for each additional cared-for person, will be available for eligible carers who get Carer Support Payment from March this year. 

“It’s amazing that there is this acknowledgement for people who do look after more than one disabled person,” Dawn says. “It’s improving things for every carer out there who manages care for multiple people. 

“I’m going to move the Carer Additional Person Payment and Scottish Carer Supplement into a separate account to go towards a holiday fund. We’re going to go down to London to see family.” 

Dawn, who already receives Carer Support Payment, says that social security support has made a real difference for her and her family – and she would encourage others in a caring role to see what help they might be eligible for. 

She says: “Getting Carer Support Payment – it felt like I was getting recognition for the job that I had to do, looking after my daughter. If it wasn’t there, I don’t know how we would have got by. 

“For people who are doing work that is unseen – and people see me running about but they don’t realise the emotional load that I’ve got – it does help to have that support, most of which I’m going to put away so that me and my daughter can enjoy it.  

“When it comes to applying for support, I always say, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. It makes a real difference.”