There is a maximum of two claimants on a Universal Credit (UC) claim therefore there cannot be 3 or more claimants on the UC claim being attributed with the carer’s element.

a) In August 2025, 1,045,000 UC households had the UC carer's element of £201.68 for one claimant.

b) In August 2025, 37,000 UC households had the UC carer's element of two lots of £201.68 – one attributed to each claimant on a joint claim.

Notes:

1. Figures are for GB.
2. Figures relate to UC claims with an assessment period covering the 2nd Thursday of the month.
3. Figures are rounded to nearest 1,000.
4. Nil award claims are not included. However, some UC claims will have been reduced for adjusting factors such as capital, earnings and other income.
5. Household in this definition is a single person or couple living together, and any child dependants. This may also be known as a benefit unit.

The Government is committed to supporting unpaid carers to balance their caring alongside work, and to do so in a way that supports their own health and wellbeing.

As indicated in People at the Heart of Care in 2021, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) are the lead department for carer’s leave. DBT has carried out a range of activities to raise awareness of Carer’s Leave, including producing associated guidance available through GOV.UK, working closely stakeholders such as carer and business representative organisations and promoting Carers Leave through the ‘Help to Grow’ website.

The Department for Health and Social Care continues to seek and use opportunities to raise awareness of support services and relevant legislation, including carer’s leave, amongst unpaid carers. This includes through our ongoing engagement with carer representative organisations, the use of GOV.UK and engagement in events such as during Carers Week, which this year takes place in June 2024.

The Care Act (2014) requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for unpaid carers. Local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support, and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer.

Through the Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF), we are investing £42.6 million for innovative local projects focused on transforming the care sector. The purpose of the ARF is to support two or more projects in each area, with at least one of those having a particular focus on unpaid carers. More than half of the projects, and at least one in each integrated care system area, are focused on identifying, recognising, and supporting unpaid carers.

T7

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Dame Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab):

I absolutely agree that we should redouble our efforts to recruit and retain more home-grown carers, as the Welsh Government are doing by paying them all at least the real living wage, but in the short term we have to rely on foreign workers. From her earlier answers, it appears that the Social Care Minister is happy to deprive them of the enjoyment of their own family life, while we expect them to give our relatives loving care. Will she think again and speak to Home Office colleagues about dropping this totally inhumane ban?

Visits from loved ones are vital to the health and wellbeing of people receiving care in care homes, hospitals and hospices. In December 2023, the Government laid before Parliament the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, which adds visiting and accompanying as a new fundamental standard for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to inspect care and health settings against. These regulations will come into force on 6 April 2024.

The CQC is now consulting on its proposed guidance for this legislation, which will help the health and social care sector understand and meet the new standard on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals, and hospices and their roles and responsibilities under it. The guidance also sets out what people using health and social care services and their families, friends or advocates can expect. The consultation can be found at the following link:

https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-involve-you/consultations/consultation-our-guidance-visiting-care-homes-hospitals-and-hospices

In order to strengthen the requirements around visiting and accompanying in a range of health and care settings, we recently introduced legislation to make visiting and accompanying a Care Quality Commission fundamental standard of care. Settings will be inspected against this standard, which will come into force on 6 April 2024.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have need for support, and to meet their eligible needs upon request from the carer.

On 24 October 2023, the adult social care’s Innovation and Improvement Unit launched the Accelerating Reform Fund which provides a total of £42.6 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support innovation and scaling in adult social care, and to kick start a change in services to support unpaid carers. The list of priorities for innovation and scaling includes focussing on identifying unpaid carers in local areas, encouraging people to recognise themselves as carers, and promoting access to carer services.

The adult social care reform white paper, People at the Heart of Care, published on 1 December 2021, highlighted the potential to increase the voluntary use of unpaid carer markers in National Health Service electronic health records. In 2022, NHS England wrote to all general practices about the importance of identifying carers and advising how caring status should be recorded on patient records.

This summer, I met with NHS England and ministerial counterparts as part of the cross-government roundtable on unpaid carers. We discussed the identification of unpaid carers, including young carers, which continues to be an important area of work. NHS England set out how it plans to continue important work to identify, involve and support unpaid carers by, for example, enhancing the NHS App.

The Adult Social Care reform white paper, ‘People at the Heart of Care’, which was published December 2021, addressed identifying unpaid carers through increasing the use of markers in National Health Service electronic health records, by simplifying current approaches to data collection and registration.

On 17 October 2022, NHS England wrote to all general practitioner practices about the importance of identifying carers and advising how caring status should be recorded on patient records.

No assessment has been made on the policy implications following the publication of the report.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer.

In 2023/24, £327 million of Better Care funding has been earmarked to provide short breaks and respite services for carers. This also funds additional advice and support to carers and a small number of additional local authority duties.

The Care Act (2014) requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for unpaid carers. Local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer.

For 2023/24, the Better Care Fund earmarked £327 million to support local authorities with health and care services, including providing carers with advice, support, short breaks, and respite services.

The NHS Long Term Plan has also committed an additional £2.3 billion this year for the expansion and transformation of mental health services in England by March 2024 so that an additional two million people, including full-time carers, can get the National Health Service-funded mental health support that they need.

In England, under the Care Act 2014, all local authorities including Solihull, are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer. This might include access to respite and breaks or financial support.

The Department has published guidance on what to expect from health and adult social care services after a dementia diagnosis, which includes offering an assessment to the carer. The guidance is available to Solihull’s Constituents and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/after-a-diagnosis-of-dementia-what-to-expect-from-health-and-care-services/after-diagnosis-of-dementia-what-to-expect-from-health-and-care-services

The Government recognises that the rising cost of living has presented additional financial challenges for many people, including unpaid carers.

The Government continues to provide financial support to unpaid carers through Carer’s Allowance, the Carer Element in Universal Credit and through other benefits.

Unpaid carers in receipt of eligible benefits may receive additional support through the new Cost of Living Payments in 2023-24. These will help more than eight million United Kingdom households on eligible means tested benefits, eight million pensioner households and six million people across the UK on eligible disability benefits.

We want unpaid carers to live healthy and fulfilling lives alongside their caring role. This is why this Government is fully committed to the 10-year vision for Adult Social Care that we re-affirmed in the Next Steps to put People at the Heart of Care (2023).

The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable high-quality care and support services, including support for unpaid carers and local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer.

The enormous contribution made by unpaid carers is reflected throughout Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care published April 2023.

The Department has no plans to make such an assessment.