What is a Young Carer Grant? How much is it? If you are someone else’s carer, and are 16 to 18 years old, you may qualify. In fact, you could get a certain amount yearly. Furthermore, you can use the money however you want. This Your Benefits article will tell you all you need to know about the Young Carer Grant.
How much is Young Carer Grant?
The Young Carer Grant is a payment that young carers can receive yearly. More specifically, it is £326.65 yearly. In order to receive this benefit, the carer must be between 16 and 18 years old. Additionally, the person or people you care for must receive at least one qualifying benefit.
This benefit is only available for those living in Scotland. Once you get a Young Carer Grant, you can spend it however you want. In fact, you are not limited in using it for your caring or living costs. What you do with the money is your own business.
You need to be caring for 1 to 3 people for 16 hours weekly on average. In fact, this means that you can be over or under 16 hours from week to week. Indeed, you need to be at 16 hours on average or more overall. Additionally, you must have provided care to the person in the past 3 months or more.
Am I a young carer?
Being a young carer means you are caring for at least one person. This can be a family member, friend, neighbor, or more. Additionally, if you are taking care of a parent, you also are likely taking care of siblings or young children.
Are you unsure if you are caring for someone, and can get the Young Carer Grant? You can be considered a carer if you do any of the following:
- Give them support with an addiction that they have;
- Give them support with a disability;
- Provide emotional support;
- Give them support for an illness;
- Provide help for their mental health.
Are you unsure if you are providing help for their mental health? Then, this is the case for you if you are doing the following, you:
- Provide aid through a crisis;
- Stay with them so that they do not feel lonely, or to keep them company;
- Provide aid while they are having a panic attack;
- Check in with them during the day;
- Stay updated to make sure they are not in any danger.
The person you care for may have an illness or disability. In this case, you may:
- Translate documents or speech for them;
- Shop for them;
- Cook for them;
- Aid them in using the toilet or bath;
- Aid them in taking their medicine;
- Get them dressed;
- Help them getting around.
You may be doing at least one of these for 1 to 3 people. In fact, if you do these most days weekly, or even daily, you then likely qualify as a young carer.
What if I get paid or volunteer to be a carer?
You may get paid to be a carer, or volunteer to do so. If this is the case, you may not receive a Young Carer Grant. In fact, this is the case for you if you care for someone for your job. Additionally, this is also the case if your caring is part of a volunteering scheme.
Indeed, if you want to receive this benefit, you may not volunteer or get paid as a carer. However, if you get paid to care for one person, but do not get paid for another person, you can still apply for a Young Carer Grant in 2022.
Can I get a Young Carer Grant?
You must be 16, 17 or 18 to be eligible for a Young Carer Grant. Additionally, you must have been caring for 1 to 3 people for at least 3 months, and 16 hours weekly on average. Furthermore, if you care for more than one person, you can combine the total caring hours to arrive at an average of 16 hours weekly.
You may not have been able to apply before your 19th birthday because of coronavirus. Then, do not worry, as you can still apply, and will likely still qualify for a Young Carer Grant.
Carer’s Allowance is impacted by your earnings. However, you can do things like count expenses you pay for someone to take care of your children or a disabled person while you work. Here is an example:
| Carer's Allowance earnings example in 2022 | |
|---|---|
| Earnings and expenses | Amount (weekly) |
| Earnings | £110 |
| Expenses on care | £70 |
| Amount treatable as expenses | £55 |
What qualifies me for a Young Carer Grant?
Some additional conditions need to be true in order to get Young Carer Grant. All of the following need to apply to your situation, you:
- Currently reside in Scotland;
- Are 16, 17 or 18 years old (you may not have been able to apply before turning 19 because of coronavirus. If this is the case, you can likely still apply);
- Cared for 1 to 3 people for a minimum of 16 hours weekly, for at least 3 months;
- The person or people you provide care to gets certain qualifying benefits;
- You are not caring for said person or people for your job, or as a volunteer (like for a charity);
- You don’t receive (Northern Ireland’s) Carer’s Allowance.
What is considered a qualifying benefit?
The person or people you care for must be earning at least one qualifying benefit. Moreover, this must be for a minimum of the past 3 months. Indeed, this is so that you can receive a Young Carer Grant. The following are considered qualifying benefits:
- Constant Attendance Allowance (you must also receive the basic rate of War Disablement Pension);
- Armed Forces Independence Payment;
- Attendance Allowance;
- Adult Disability Payment (the daily living component);
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA) (you must receive the highest or middle care rate which includes the Child Disability Living Allowance);
- Child Disability Payment (the highest or middle care rate);
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP) (you must receive the daily living component).
How to get a Young Carer Grant
You may apply online, by post or by phone. The easiest way to apply is online, on the mygov.scot website. Before applying, you will need to provide the following information:
- The details of your bank account;
- Information about the person you provide care to (if you know it, this includes their National Insurance number);
- Your own National Insurance number (this is if you know it).
You may not have a bank account. Additionally, you may not want to create one, or use an account owned by someone else. If this is the case, you should apply by phone.
You may have received the Young Carer Grant, and now live in Switzerland or the European Economic Area. Then, you may still get the Young Carer Grant.
What documents will I need to provide?
You will need to provide documents to prove where you live. Then, once these documents are received, you will get a letter indicating what other documents you need to provide.
To prove that you reside in Scotland, you need to provide one of the following:
- A statement of a building society or bank, no more than 6 months old;
- A General Practitioner registration letter;
- A social worker letter;
- Your UK electoral voting card;
- An award letter for financial support, from Student Award Agency Scotland (SAAS), from the current academic year;
- A letter from the Department for Work and Pensions, from no more than 6 months ago (for example, this can be a benefits award letter);
- An award letter for financial support from Education Maintenance Award (EMA) (this must be from the current academic year);
- A Scottish local authority letter (it must be from no more than 6 months ago, on headed paper. Additionally, this can be something such as a housing benefit letter);
- A letter from a professional body (the letter must be on headed paper, no more than 6 months old. For example, it can be from a charity, school, college, dentist, optician or doctor).
If you cannot provide any of these documents, you may call Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222. You may do so from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.
What if two carers care for the same person?
You may be caring for more than one person (up to 3). If this is the case, you may then add up the total amount of time you spend caring for each person. In fact, you should include information about each person that you care for in your claim.
Two people may be taking care of the same person. Indeed, the second person may be between 16 and 18 years old. If this is the case, only one of you may get a Young Carer Grant.
