When clients end employment

Where a client ends employment, we treat earnings from their final pay differently depending on whether they ended employment either:

• before their Carer Support Payment entitlement start date
• during an ongoing award of Carer Support Payment

If a client has ended their employment before applying

Earnings can be disregarded where they are received from employment that has ended before Carer Support Payment entitlement started. The intention of this is so that clients are not penalised when they have had to stop paid work because of their caring responsibilities.

These earnings can either be ignored in the earnings tab on SPM (as long as there is a start and end date date) or a new deduction evidence can be created following operational guidance.

If a client ends their employment prior to their Carer Support Payment entitlement start date, any earnings received (or due to be paid) from that employment during their entitlement to Carer Support Payment can be disregarded following operational guidance.

However, this disregard doesn’t apply to:

• retainers
• payments from a workplace or personal pension
• payments made for periods when the employee was on maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, neonatal care leave or sick leave
• Compensation for unfair dismissal where no reinstatement or re-engagement is ordered, or such orders are not complied with
• Reinstatement arrears of pay
• Re-engagement arrears
• Continuation of contract payments
• Protective awards where an employer fails to inform or consult employees before redundancies

Retainers are payments to retain an employee for periods during which no work is done, for example to some term-time workers over school holidays. If a client receives a retainer payment this should be treated as earnings, so the weekly amount of this should be calculated to identify if they have earnings over the limit.

If the client’s final pay includes any of the payments listed above, these payments are both:

• treated as earnings
• payable in respect of a specific period

they must therefore be allocated for the number of award weeks that they relate to, starting from the Sunday of the award week that the money is received.

If the money only includes statutory payments, the number of weeks this amount should be spread over can be found by dividing the amount by the weekly statutory rate. Statutory rates can be found on gov.uk for example at Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 - GOV.UK.

The decision maker should contact the client to check how many weeks the payment covers if this is not clear from the payslip provided. In many cases, ff the money only includes statutory payments, the number of weeks this amount can be spread over can be found by dividing the amount by the weekly statutory rate. Statutory rates can be found on gov.uk for example at Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 - GOV.UK. Statutory pay can also be 90% of the employee’s weekly earnings if this is less that the statutory weekly rate set by the UK Government.

If a client receives any payments other than those set out in the above list in their final pay from their employment, we would need to calculate the period that these earnings should be applied to in line with the rules on one-off payments to identify if they have earnings over the limit.   

Please note these illustrative examples have been worked out using the 2025-26 earnings threshold. For a list of current and previous threshold amounts please see operational guidance on benefit rates.

Example of ending employment before applying for Carer Support Payment and client has received a payment in relation to a specific period

Dotty was working as a receptionist before she had to stop working due to her caring responsibilities. She left her job on 30 January 2026 and applied for Carer Support Payment on 12 February 2026.

Dotty received her final pay on 27 February. Her final payslip includes wages for work done as well as £374.36 for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) which was paid in respect of a specific period of maternity leave.

Dotty’s wages can be disregarded because her employment ended before her Carer Support Payment entitlement start date.

The SMP cannot be disregarded. SMP is always pay for a specific period, so it must be allocated for the number of award weeks the payment is related to. When dividing the amount for SMP by the statutory weekly rate for 2025/26, £187.18 this shows that Dotty received 2 weeks of SMP. The SMP is less than the earnings limit. Dotty can be entitled to Carer Support Payment.

Example of ending employment before applying for Carer Support Payment

Kath was employed as a nurse. On 19 October, Kath’s disabled mother suffered a severe stroke and Kath resigned from work on that day. Kath applied for Carer Support Payment on and from 22 October. On 31 October, Kath received their final monthly salary. These final earnings are disregarded. Kath continues to receive Carer Support Payment.

Awarding entitlement in the same week as employment end

If a client is a new applicant and has stopped working, they could be eligible from the same award week in which they end employment. This applies if they ended employment at least one calendar day before they otherwise met all other eligibility criteria. Any earnings received from that ended employment can be disregarded.

Examples of awarding entitlement in the same week as employment end

Judy applies for Carer Support Payment on 23 April 2025 and applies to backdate her award to 22 April 2025. Judy meets all other eligibility criteria in this award week. Judy ends her employment on 21 April 2025. Because Judy ended employment at least one day before her chosen start date and she met all other eligibility criteria in that award week, Judy can be awarded Carer Support Payment from Sunday 20 April. Judy’s final pay from this employment can be disregarded.

Fergus ends employment on the same day as he applies for Carer Support Payment – 31 July 2025. Fergus met all of the eligibility criteria in that award week. It can be considered then that Fergus met all of the eligibility criteria on 1 August 2025. As Fergus ended employment at least a calendar day before 1 August 2025, he can be awarded Carer Support Payment from the start of the award week – Sunday 27 July. Fergus’ final pay received for this employment can be disregarded.

If a client ends employment during an award

If a client ends their employment during an ongoing award of Carer Support Payment, they are required to report this as a change of circumstances. In some cases, their final pay may include different types of payments from the same employer – for example final wages together with holiday pay, PILON, sick pay or other payments.

Where these different types of earnings would normally be taken into account overlapping in the same award weeks, we must follow overlapping payment rules and spread the impact out, starting from the earliest treat as paid date. This prevents the same award weeks being counted twice. See operational guidance on ended employment.

Final pay is spread out as a client would have more money than normal from their work would have less need for an ‘income replacement benefit.’ Applied consistently, this would ensure fairness where clients receive different amounts upon leaving work.

For example, if a client received £2,000 on top their normal salary when leaving work, they would not be entitled to Carer Support Payment for a period longer than another client who received £500 on top of their normal salary from leaving work.

For more details see Carer Support Payment Regulations, Schedule 2, Paragraph  5 (3) & 5 (4)

If a client ends employment during an ongoing award of Carer Support Payment, we spread the impact of the client’s final pay by:  

• Taking the total of the periods which apply to each of the different kinds of earnings and
• Taking the earliest date on which any of those earnings would be treated as paid and
• Applying payments in the following order:
  • Normal earnings including wages
  • PILON or PILOR
  • Compensation payments for loss of earnings due to an accident at work
  • Holiday pay received within four weeks of the date employment ended
  • Anything else
• Each different kind of payment should be taken into account over a period between the first day of the benefit week in which they were received, and the day before the first day of the benefit week in which the next ordinary salary payment would have been received. For example, while a payment of PILON could be for six weeks of wages, if the carer was paid every four weeks, the PILON would be attributed to a period of four weeks.

Example of applying overlapping payment rules  for a client who has ended employment during an ongoing CSP award

Sarah normally got paid on the last day of the month. Sarah left work on Friday 13 May to care for their mother. This was after the start of Sarah’s CSP entitlement. On 31 May Sarah received a final payment from work made up of:

• two weeks’ normal earnings
• four weeks’ holiday pay and
• six weeks’ PILON

All three elements were due to be paid on 31 May because that was the terms of Sarah’s employment contract.

Following the overlapping payment rules and taking the normal earnings first, they should be attributed to a period between the first day of the benefit week in which they were received i.e. Sunday 29 May, and the day before the first day of the benefit week in which the next ordinary salary payment would have been received i.e. Saturday 25 June. A period of 27 days.

Next, taking the holiday pay, this would have been attributed to the first day of the benefit week in which it was received i.e. Sunday 29 May, and the day before the first day of the benefit week in which the next ordinary salary payment would have been due i.e. Saturday 25 June. Another period of 27 days.

Finally, taking the PILON, this would also be attributed between Sunday 29 May and Saturday 25^th June. Another period of 27 days.

As all of these earnings come from the same source, their attribution periods cannot overlap. The total of the periods which apply to each of the different kinds of earnings is 81 days. This started on Sunday 29^h May and would end on Saturday 20 August as this is the day before the first day of the next benefit week after accounting for the total of the periods that apply.

The order of payments that we take into account would be:

• Normal salary taken into account for the period between Sunday 29 May to Saturday 25 June
• PILON taken into account for the period between Sunday 26 June to Saturday 23 July
• Holiday pay taken into account for the period between Sunday 24 July to Saturday 20 August
   

If Sarah was to begin working again and received a payment before 20 August, her salary from her new job would be included as earnings alongside the earnings being spread out under the overlapping payment rules set out above.