Carer's Allowance (CA) is a weekly payment for anyone who spends at least 35 hours a week looking after someone with an illness or disability but is not paid to do this. Even if your child is at school, it's easy to see that most parents will 'clock up' many more hours than this over a week.

• Who can claim it?
• How do you get it?

Who can claim it?

If your child gets DLA for personal care at the middle or high rate you may be able to claim Carer's Allowance (CA).

• CA is taxed and it is counted as income, if you claim other means tested benefits.
• You can still earn up to £100 a week doing other work and still claim CA. This is after expenses such as income tax and national insurance contributions have been taken into account.
• If someone else cares for your child, perhaps because you work, but they are not paid to care for your child, they can claim the benefit instead.
• It's worth claiming CA even if you are on Income Support (IS), because although CA is deducted from your IS, claiming it protects your pension and makes you eligible for a Carer's Premium, so the amount you get in IS will increase.

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How do you get it?

Claiming CA is straightforward as you are only asked for basic information. The claim pack is simple and easy to understand. You are guided to relevant pages and it takes only a few minutes to complete:

You can get a claim pack by calling:

• The Carer's Allowance Unit on 0845 6084321

You can claim online at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/carersallowance/

• The online format takes account of your answers and skips irrelevant questions.
• You are sent a paper copy to sign and return.

You can make a claim when you apply for DLA: As long as you meet the qualifying criteria, CA will be paid as soon as an award for DLA is made.

Claims can be backdated up to three months. So you can wait and make a claim for CA once your child's award for DLA is agreed.

If your child's claim for DLA is turned down, or they are only awarded the low rate of the care component, apply for CA as soon as you can, while you challenge that decision. This ensures that your backdated CA is safe if the decision is revised.