One week a year, from your first day, and your employer cannot refuse it. See what taking it costs — and whether the £204 allowance limit really rules you out.
Your week of carer’s leave is your working week. Work three days and the entitlement is three days, not five.
This gates Carer’s Allowance only. Carer’s leave has no hours test at all.
PIP daily living, Attendance Allowance, DLA middle or higher rate care, Adult Disability Payment daily living, and a few others. Carer’s Allowance depends on it; carer’s leave does not.
Half of your pension contributions come off before the Carer’s Allowance earnings test — a detail that decides a lot of borderline cases.
Paying someone who is not a close relative to care for the disabled person, or childcare for children under 16, so that you can work. Deductible up to half your net earnings.
| If you take | Lost pay | After tax and NI |
|---|
Carer’s leave gives you one week off per rolling 12 months to give or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. It has been a day-one right since 6 April 2024, your employer cannot refuse it, and they cannot ask you to prove anything. They can only postpone it for serious business disruption, and even then must offer an alternative date within a month.
Two details decide how much it is actually worth. A “week” means your own working week — three days if you work three days — and it is one week in total however many people you care for. It does not multiply per dependant, which is the disappointment most people meet first.
And it is unpaid. There is no statutory carer’s pay, which makes this the only entitlement of its kind with no payment attached and is why the calculator above works out what the time costs you rather than what it pays. The real cost is lower than the headline, because the pay you forgo would have been taxed.
Carer’s Allowance is £86.45 a week in 2026/27 — nearly £4,500 a year — for anyone caring at least 35 hours a week for someone receiving a qualifying disability benefit. The third condition is an earnings limit of £204 a week, and this is where an enormous number of people rule themselves out wrongly.
The limit applies to net pay, not gross. Before your earnings are compared to £204, you deduct income tax, National Insurance, half of any pension contributions, and care costs you pay to a non-relative so that you can work. Someone earning £260 a week gross, paying into a pension and buying a few hours of replacement care, can be comfortably inside the limit. Almost every summary of this benefit says “you can earn up to £204” and stops there, and people who would qualify never apply.
From April 2026 the limit is pegged at 16 times the National Living Wage — the first time it has been linked to anything since the benefit was created in 1976, and why it rose from £196 to £204.
There is no taper. Net earnings of £203.99 get the full £86.45; £204.01 gets nothing. A single penny decides the entire payment, which creates a band where extra earnings make you worse off: anywhere between £204.01 and £290.45 of net weekly pay leaves you with less in total than stopping at the limit.
It matters, too, that earnings are assessed week by week. One week of overtime or a single bonus can breach the limit and generate an overpayment the DWP reclaims later — the mechanism behind the Carer’s Allowance overpayments scandal. The independent Sayce review found the causes were systemic rather than carers making mistakes, and the government has committed to exploring a Universal Credit style taper. Nothing has changed yet, so tell the DWP promptly whenever your pay changes.
If you care for fewer than 35 hours, look at Carer’s Credit: available from 20 hours a week, it pays nothing but protects your National Insurance record so that caring does not quietly shrink your State Pension. It is free, often missed, and can be backdated.
Ask your employer what they offer. A growing number pay carer’s leave, give more than the statutory week, or run carer-passport schemes, and almost none of it is advertised. Flexible working has also been a day-one right to request since April 2024, and for many carers a permanent change of hours is worth considerably more than one week off a year.
Finally, you are entitled to a carer’s assessment from your local council in your own right, separately from anything the person you care for receives. It is free, it is a legal entitlement under the Care Act 2014, and it can lead to practical help including respite. Carers UK runs a free advice line on all of it.
One week per rolling 12 months, and it is unpaid. There is no statutory carer’s pay of any kind — carer’s leave is the only entitlement in the family-leave set with no payment attached, which is why this page works out what the time costs you rather than what it pays.
A “week” means your own working week. If you work three days, your entitlement is three days, not five. You can take it as half days, single days, or one continuous block, and it is a day-one right for employees.
No. It is one week in total, however many people you care for. This is a common and disappointing misunderstanding — the entitlement attaches to you as an employee, not to each dependant.
Broader than most people expect. A dependant can be:
That last category is deliberately wide. A neighbour, a friend or a more distant relative can all qualify if they genuinely rely on you.
Any one of three things: an illness or injury that is likely to need care for more than three months; a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010; or care needed for reasons connected with old age.
The leave covers both providing and arranging care, so using it for appointments, assessments, care-home visits or sorting out a care package all count.
No. An employer cannot refuse carer’s leave and cannot require evidence of the care you provide. They may only postpone it, and only where the absence would cause serious disruption to the business. If they do, they must agree an alternative date within one month of the date you originally asked for, and confirm the postponement in writing within seven days.
You are also protected from being treated badly for taking it, or for asking.
Twice the length of the leave, or three days — whichever is longer. So a single day needs three days’ notice; four days of leave needs eight days’ notice. The notice does not have to be in writing, and you do not have to say what the care is for.
They are separate rights and you can use both. Time off for dependants covers sudden, unexpected emergencies — a carer falling through, an unplanned hospital admission — and is for however long is reasonable to deal with the immediate situation. It is unpaid and has no annual cap.
Carer’s leave is for planned or predictable caring: appointments, arranging a care package, being there after a discharge. It is capped at a week a year but it is yours to schedule.
£86.45 a week in 2026/27, which is £4,495 a year. Three conditions, all of which must be met:
It is taxable, and it brings Class 1 National Insurance credits towards your State Pension, which over time are often worth more than the payment itself. Note that your claim depends on their benefit: if they have not claimed one, that is where to start.
Net — and this is the most misreported thing about Carer’s Allowance. Almost every summary says “you can earn up to £204 a week” without saying what comes off first. The limit is applied after deducting:
Someone earning £260 a week gross with a pension and some care costs can be comfortably inside the limit. A great many people who would qualify never claim because they compared the wrong number.
From April 2026 the limit is permanently pegged at 16 times the National Living Wage — the first time it has been linked to anything since the benefit was created in 1976, and the reason it rose from £196 to £204.
Carer’s Allowance has no taper. Net earnings of £203.99 get the full £86.45; £204.01 gets nothing at all. One penny decides the whole payment.
The consequence is a band where earning more leaves you with less. Between £204.01 and £290.45 of net weekly earnings — the limit plus the allowance — you end up worse off overall than someone who stopped at £204. The calculator above shows where you sit relative to that band.
It also matters that earnings are assessed week by week. A single week of overtime or a one-off bonus can breach the limit and create an overpayment the DWP later reclaims. That mechanism is what drove the Carer’s Allowance overpayments scandal; the independent Sayce review found the causes were systemic rather than carers making mistakes, and the government has committed to exploring a Universal Credit style taper. Nothing has changed yet, so tell the DWP promptly whenever your earnings change.
Look at Carer’s Credit. If you care for at least 20 hours a week you can claim it even though Carer’s Allowance needs 35. It pays nothing, but it fills gaps in your National Insurance record so that caring does not quietly reduce your State Pension later. It is free, frequently missed, and can be backdated.
Your carer’s leave is unaffected either way — it has no hours test at all.
It is being actively considered. The government ran a consultation, Make Work Pay: employment rights for unpaid carers and parents of seriously ill children, from 9 June to 1 September 2026. The options it put forward for paid carer’s leave were 90% or 50% of normal pay, the flat statutory family rate of £194.32 a week, or the statutory sick pay rate. It also asked about extending the unpaid week and creating a statutory right to return after a period of absence.
The wider review of carers’ employment rights was due to conclude by the end of 2026. Until something actually changes, the entitlement remains one unpaid week a year.
Three things worth raising, none of which are usually advertised:
All free and independent:
You are also entitled to a carer’s assessment from your local council, separately from anything the person you care for gets. It is free, it is a legal right under the Care Act 2014, and it can lead to practical support such as respite.
Carer’s leave is unpaid, so a week off changes your take-home for the month. See what your pay looks like either way.
