Eligibility for Young Carer Grant

oung carers usually help someone by doing things for them that they cannot always do for themselves. It often means they put someone else’s needs before their own, and sometimes have to miss out on spending time with their friends. The person they care for might be a family member, friend or a neighbour. They might also look after a sibling or younger child in the house because the person they care for cannot do it themselves.

They might help them with:

• their mental health
• emotional support
• an illness
• a disability
• an addiction

If the person they care for needs mental health and emotional support, they might:

• comfort them during a panic attack
• stay close by so they do not feel alone
• keep them company
• help them through a crisis situation
• check on them throughout the day
• make sure they’re safe

If the person they care for has an illness or physical disability, they might:

• help them to get around
• dress them
• give them (or remind them to take) their medication
• help them to shower or use the toilet
• cook their meals for them
• do their food shopping
• translate for them

For the applicant to be eligible, the person or people they care for must have been getting one of these benefits for at least three months on the date they apply:

• the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) (care component)
• the middle or highest care rate of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), including Child Disability Living Allowance
• the middle or highest care rate of Child Disability Payment
• Armed Forces Independence Payment
• Attendance Allowance
• Constant Attendance Allowance

If the person they care for gets Constant Attendance Allowance, they need to be getting either:

• Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (at or above the normal maximum rate) or
• War Disablement Pension (at the basic rate)

The person or people the applicant cares for must have been getting one of these benefits for at least 13 weeks up to and including the date of the Young Carer Grant application in order for the applicant to be eligible. The person (or people) the applicant cares for does not need to still be getting the benefit when the determination is made, as long as they were getting it on the day of the application. If the person the applicant cares for has just started getting one of these benefits, tell the applicant that they should apply when the cared for person has been getting the benefit for 13 weeks. This does not remove the need for a determination, if the applicant has already applied.

If a cared for person changes from one qualifying benefit to another in the 13-week period and there is no gap between one of the qualifying benefits being normally payable, a Young Carer Grant application can still be accepted, assuming the applicant meets all other criteria.

A person may also qualify for Young Carer Grant if the cared for person gets a backdated award of assistance covering the qualifying period the application relates to. In this instance, a decision to award Young Carer Grant can be made without a new application being submitted.

If a client references a benefit from a European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland as their qualifying benefit, please bring this to the attention of the Decision Support Team.

The applicant needs to confirm that they spend an average of 16 hours a week caring for the person or people they put in their application. The average of 16 hours can be split between up to three people.

If the applicant chooses to put the details of multiple people in their application, then all of these people must be on a qualifying benefit.

If the applicant confirms that they cared for the first person for an average of 16 hours a week, then you should not take the details of any other people they care for. The applicant will not get paid more if they put extra people in their application. If they spend, on average, less than 16 hours caring for the first person, then they should add the details of up to two more people to their application form.

If more than one young carer applies for the same person then it should be the first person who applied that gets the award, provided they meet the criteria.

If the applicant is a volunteer or gets paid to care for someone, and they care for someone else in their home life, then the people they put in their application must not be the people they are volunteering or being paid to care for. This does not apply to kinship carers who provide care by arrangement with a local authority and who may receive a kinship carer allowance.

Volunteering

The applicant will not be eligible if they volunteer to care for the person or people they have put in their application.

If the applicant works unpaid for an organisation or charity, and does not care for someone else as well, they would be considered a volunteer.

Example: Sam provides care for a resident in a local care home one night per week. He also cares for his mum at home. When applying for Young Carer Grant, Sam must put his mum down on his application, not the person he volunteers for at the care home.

Paid care

The applicant will not be eligible if they are getting paid to care for the person or people they have put in their application.

Getting paid to care for someone would be if the applicant is employed as a carer in a job and does not care for anyone else outside of this.

Example: Lee is employed as a part-time care assistant. Lee used the details of the person she works as a care-assistant for in her application, so she does not meet the criteria.

This does not apply to kinship carers who provide care by arrangement with a local authority and who may receive a kinship carer allowance.