Extra Carers’ Support – Eligibility

Once you have had a Carers health and wellbeing check/assessment we will be able to work out:

• the impact of caring on your health and wellbeing
• what support you need

Every Carer has access to free Carers (universal) support, but some Carers need more help. There is support if you are a parent Carer. If you are a Carer of an adult, then you may be able to have more support.

Basic Carer support (Carers of Adults)

If the universal Carers support does not meet your needs your support worker will do an ‘eligibility check' to see if:

• the health or emotional wellbeing of the adult you care for is likely to get worse if you stop helping them (if you are providing ‘necessary care’) and 
• there will be an impact on your wellbeing or
• you are not able to achieve any of these everyday tasks (outcomes):
  • carrying out any caring responsibilities the carer has for a child
  • providing care to other persons for whom the carer provides care
  • maintaining a habitable home environment
  • managing and maintaining nutrition
  • developing and maintaining family or other significant personal relationships
  • engaging in work, training, education or volunteering
  • making use of necessary facilities or services in the local community
  • engaging in recreational activities

 If you are eligible for basic Carer support you may be able to get:

• funding or vouchers for emotional support
• a one-off Carer’s direct payment of up to £200 towards having a break from caring, improving your outcomes (listed above)

Enhanced Carer support

If basic Carer support does not help to improve your situation then we will need to look at the support the person you care for gets. They may change this support to reduce the impact of caring on you.

If you still have additional or ‘enhanced’ needs, then your support worker can complete a ‘Resource Allocation System’ to see if you can have more support. This is a tool to help staff work out the level of support that you need.

This will help you to meet your everyday tasks (outcomes) and might be:

• a larger one-off Carer’s direct payment
• an ongoing Carer’s direct payment’ which will be reviewed regularly

The assessment is not based on your income or savings (means tested).