Carer's Allowance Earnings Limit Calculator

How DWP works out your earnings

The limit is in regulation 8 of the Social Security (Invalid Care Allowance) Regulations 1976: you are treated as working, and get no Carer's Allowance, for a week in which your earnings in the week before "have exceeded" £204. Earnings are worked out under the Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Regulations 1996.

• Employees (reg 10): gross pay, less the Income Tax and employee Class 1 National Insurance actually deducted, less half of your pension contributions. gov.uk adds work expenses such as equipment you need for the job and travel between workplaces your employer does not pay (gov.uk eligibility: calculating your earnings).
• Pay that is not weekly (reg 8): a month is multiplied by 12 and divided by 52; three months by 4 and divided by 52; a year divided by 52; any other period multiplied by 7 and divided by its number of days, so four-weekly pay is divided by 4. Net monthly earnings above about £884.00 are over the weekly limit.
• Pay that varies (reg 8(3)): where net earnings fluctuate, DWP can average them over one complete cycle of work if there is one, or otherwise over five weeks or another period that gives a more accurate figure. Unclear guidance on this averaging is what the 2015-2025 overpayments reassessment is about.
• Self-employed (regs 11, 13, 14): earnings are normally averaged over a year. Net profit is receipts less allowable business expenses, less half of pension premiums, less notional tax and NI: Income Tax at the 20% basic rate on profit above the Personal Allowance (£12,570), and Class 4 at 6% between the lower and upper profits limits, pro rata. Class 2 is not deducted: that provision was removed from 6 April 2024. If you work in a partnership (or as a share fisherman) the starting point is your share of the net profit (reg 13(1)(b)), so enter your share. A self-employed childminder's net profit is one-third of receipts instead of receipts less actual expenses, and the notional tax and NI are worked out on that one-third (regs 13(10) and 14(3)(b)); tick the childminder box in the calculator.
• Care costs (reg 10(3) and Schedule 3): what you pay someone to look after the person you care for, or a child under 16 you or your partner get Child Benefit for, while you work. The carer must not be a close relative (parent, son, daughter, brother, sister or partner) of you or the person you care for. The deduction is capped at 50% of your net earnings. gov.uk's example: £100 net and £60 of care costs means £50 is deducted.

Not counted as earnings, per gov.uk: occupational or private pension income, contributions to living costs from someone you live with who is not a tenant or boarder, a loan or advance from your employer, and the first £20 a week plus half the rest of income from a boarder.

Worked examples

Part-time job, £230 a week

Gross pay of £230 a week is below the tax and NI thresholds, so nothing comes off for those. Half of a £10 pension contribution comes off: net earnings £225.00, which is £21.00 over the limit. That week pays nothing, so the £21.00 costs £86.45. If the same carer pays a childminder £60 a week while at work, the deduction cap is half of £225.00, so all £60 counts and net earnings fall to £165.00: £39.00 under, and the full £86.45 is paid.

Monthly pay of £900

£900 a month is £900 × 12 ÷ 52 = £207.69 a week: £3.69 over the limit, with no tax or NI due at that level. With a £45 monthly pension contribution, half (£5.19 a week) comes off and net earnings are £202.50, £1.50 under.

Self-employed, £14,000 receipts a year

With £2,500 of business expenses, profit is £11,500, below the Personal Allowance and the Class 4 lower limit, so no notional tax or NI. That is £221.15 a week, £17.15 over. With the same expenses, receipts of up to about £13,108.00 a year would keep this carer within the limit.

Each figure is computed by the calculator above, from the 2026/27 rates. Estimates only.

Bonuses, holiday pay and other one-off payments

A bonus or commission, holiday pay, pay in lieu of notice and a retainer all count as earnings (Computation of Earnings Regulations 1996, reg 9(1)). Holiday pay paid when a job ends counts too, unless it is payable more than four weeks after the job ended (reg 9(1)(d)). So accrued holiday pay in a final pay packet can take that week over the limit. On a new claim, though, final earnings from a job that ended before your entitlement began are disregarded (Computation of Earnings Regulations 1996 Sch 1 para 12; DWP Decision Makers' Guide 15340).

• If the payment is for an identifiable period, DWP counts it from the benefit week it is paid in up to the day before the benefit week of your next normal payday (DMG 15426 to 15427, in DWP Decision Makers' Guide chapter 15).
• If no period can be identified, as with many one-off bonuses, the net payment is divided by the earnings limit plus one penny (plus any deductions that would apply), and it counts for that many whole weeks, fractions ignored (reg 6(2)(b); DMG 15428 to 15429). Each of those weeks is over the limit.

Example. A one-off bonus of £500 after tax and National Insurance, with nothing else to deduct: £500 ÷ £204.01 = 2.45, so it counts for 2 weeks at £250.00 a week. Each of those weeks is over the £204 limit, and because earnings in one week decide entitlement in the next (1976 Regulations reg 8(1)), 2 weeks of Carer's Allowance are lost: £172.90 in all, at 2026/27 rates. Report the bonus when you get it. If your other pay from the same job covers some of the same weeks, DWP has further rules on the order the payments are counted (reg 6(3) and (4)).

Holidays, hospital and other breaks from caring

A week in which you care for fewer than 35 hours can still count as a caring week if the break is temporary and, in the 26 weeks ending with that week, you cared for at least 35 hours a week in at least 14 weeks and would have done so in at least 22 but for you or the person you care for being a hospital in-patient (1976 Regulations reg 4(2)). DWP's guidance puts the effect simply: breaks can total up to 4 weeks in a 26-week period for any reason, or up to 12 weeks where at least 8 of them were hospital in-patient treatment. Once a non-hospital break has used more than 4 weeks, no further break in that 26-week period can be ignored, even in hospital (DMG 60046 and 60047, in DWP Decision Makers' Guide chapter 60).

• The person you care for must still get their disability benefit. If it stops being paid during a hospital stay, Carer's Allowance stops too (DMG 60050; gov.uk: report a change).
• When to tell DWP. gov.uk says report it if you or the person you care for will be in hospital, a nursing home or respite care for more than 12 weeks, or if you stop caring for more than 28 days for any other reason.
• Earnings in a break week are ignored. Regulation 8(2)(a) disregards your earnings for any week treated as a caring week under the break rule (DMG 60052). That applies only to a genuine temporary break in care that meets the conditions above; it is not a way to label a high-earning week.

Two carers, or caring for two people

• One claimant per disabled person. Where two people would each qualify for the same disabled person, only one gets Carer's Allowance: the one they jointly choose or, if they do not choose, the one DWP decides (Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 s.70(7ZA)). gov.uk says that if the other carer already gets Carer's Allowance, Carer Support Payment or the Universal Credit carer amount for that person, you cannot get Carer's Allowance unless they change their benefits; you can still apply, and DWP will decide which of you gets it. It cannot be split between you.
• No adding hours together. If you care for two or more people, you need 35 hours a week for any one of them, counted without the time you spend on anyone else (1976 Regulations reg 4(1A)). And no one can get more than one Carer's Allowance for the same day (s.70(7)(a)).
• Two carers, two people. Two relatives can each claim if each cares for a different person who gets a qualifying benefit, for at least 35 hours a week, and each meets the other conditions.