Carer's Allowance, The First Major Review in 50 Years Opens for Evidence

The government has launched the first formal review of Carer's Allowance in its 50 year history, inviting carers, organisations, and those with lived experience to share their views on how the benefit should be reformed. The call for evidence, published by the Department for Work and Pensions on 7 July 2026, runs for six weeks and closes at 11:59pm on 18 August.

It is the most significant look at the structure of Carer's Allowance since it was introduced in 1976. The benefit has remained largely unchanged while working patterns, caring arrangements, and the wider welfare system have shifted considerably around it.

Carer's Allowance operates on a rule, earn more than the weekly threshold and you lose the benefit entirely. Earn less, and you keep it. There is no taper, no gradual reduction, just a hard stop.

For carers working variable hours, that structure creates genuine instability. Someone on irregular shifts might receive the benefit one week and lose it the next, depending on what they earned. The benefit comes and goes, and with it their ability to plan.

The Sayce Review, a government commissioned analysis published before this call for evidence identified two persistent failures. First, guidance on calculating earnings was unclear, particularly for carers with fluctuating incomes. Many built up overpayment debts without realising they had exceeded the limit. Second, the earnings threshold had not kept pace with modern working patterns. A rule designed in the 1970s was being applied to a very different workforce.

The review has three main areas of focus, whether to introduce an earnings taper, potential changes to the hours rules, and how the benefit can better support carers who combine paid work with caring.

An earnings taper would work differently to the current cliff edge. Rather than cutting off the benefit at a fixed threshold, a taper would reduce entitlement gradually as earnings rise. That model already exists in Universal Credit, where income reduces the benefit at a fixed rate rather than triggering an all or nothing cut off. Whether a similar approach is right for Carer's Allowance is one of the questions the call for evidence is designed to test.

The DWP says it particularly wants to hear from carers whose earnings fluctuate week to week, those who are most affected by the current rules and who, according to Carers UK, are sometimes put off claiming altogether.

Responses can be submitted online via GOV.UK or by email. The call for evidence is also available in British Sign Language, Easy Read, audio, Braille, large print, and Welsh.

The government has not waited for the review to act. Earlier this year it raised the weekly earnings limit to £204, the highest it has ever been allowing carers to earn around £10,000 a year while keeping their support. Updated guidance on calculating earnings was also published.

Separately, the DWP launched a reassessment exercise reviewing 200,000 historical Carer's Allowance cases. Around 25,000 are expected to see their debts reduced, cancelled, or refunded. New capital disregard regulations, due to come into force next week, will ensure those refunds do not reduce a carer's entitlement to Universal Credit, Pension Credit, or Housing Benefit.

Sir Stephen Timms, the Minister for Social Security and Disability, said unpaid carers "deserve a system and level of support that properly reflects the contribution they make" and described the call for evidence as "our commitment to going further."

Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Carers UK, said the existing rules were "hard to navigate for carers with fluctuating earnings and can dissuade some from claiming what they are entitled to altogether."

Kirsty McHugh, CEO of Carers Trust, said the review was "something we, carers, and the 130+ local carer services in our network have long called for," adding that caring, work, and society had all changed considerably since 1976.

Carer's Allowance covers England and Wales only. In Scotland, it has been fully replaced by Carer Support Payment, administered by the Scottish Government. Northern Ireland maintains parity with DWP policy, though social security is a transferred matter there. The call for evidence nonetheless welcomes responses from carers across the UK.