Benefits for Students in Scotland Handbook 2025/26Part 1: Benefits Chapter 2: Carer support payment
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Chapter 2: Carer support payment
Basic facts
    •Carer support payment (CSP) is paid to people who care for someone with a disability.
    •Most students can claim CSP.
    •CSP is not means tested, but you cannot get it if you work and earn more than £196 a week.
    •Getting CSP qualifies you for a carer element in universal credit or a carer premium in your income-related employment and support allowance and housing benefit.
1. What is carer support payment
Carer support payment (CSP) is a new Scottish benefit, which replaces carer’s allowance (CA).
CSP is for people who spend at least 35 hours a week looking after a disabled person (an adult or child).1Reg 5(2) CSP Regs The disabled person must be getting a qualifying disability benefit: attendance allowance, pension age disability payment, the middle or highest rate of the child disability payment/disability living allowance/Scottish adult disability living allowance care component, either rate of the daily living component of adult disability payment/personal independence payment, armed forces independence payment or constant attendance allowance in certain cases. The amount of CSP you get is not means tested and your student loan, grant or other income does not affect it. Most students are eligible for CSP.
Additional benefits for carers
The Scottish government pays a CA supplement to people living in Scotland who get CSP (see here). This is paid as a lump sum every six months (£293.50 in 2025). From March 2026 it will change to Scottish carer supplement and will be paid alongside CSP.
A payment for carers of more than one disabled person is being introduced in March 2026 (see here).
A one-off young carer grant is available for young carers who cannot get CSP (see here).
See cpag.org.uk/scottish-benefits for more information on these payments.
 
1     Reg 5(2) CSP Regs »
2. Who is eligible
You are eligible if you are a part-time student (see below), a full-time student aged 20 or over, or a full-time student in advanced education aged 16–19, and you satisfy the basic rules (see here).1Reg 13(1) CSP Regs You are not usually eligible if you are in full-time, non-advanced education aged 16–19, although exceptions apply (see here).
 
1     Reg 13(1) CSP Regs »
Full-time non-advanced education
Only those aged 16–19 in full-time, non-advanced education are excluded from CSP.
‘Non-advanced education’ is education below the level of Higher National Certificate and includes school-level courses such as Scottish national qualifications up to and including advanced higher level, Scottish Wider Access Programmes and National Certificates.1Reg 13(4) CSP Regs
You are in ‘full-time education’ if you are undertaking a course for which the average time spent studying is more than 21 hours a week. These 21 hours include not just classes, practical work, lectures and seminars, but also ‘supervised study’. Meal breaks and unsupervised study are ignored. For carer’s allowance (CA), you are regarded as studying under supervision if you are doing course work, whether at home or at college, alone or in the presence of a supervisor.2Flemming v SSWP [2002] EWCA Civ 641; Wright-Turner v Department for Social Development [2002] NICA 2 This does not have to be followed for carer support payment (CSP) in Scotland, but it is likely to be persuasive.
16–19 year-olds in full-time, non-advanced education are not excluded from CSP if they are someone who would qualify for universal credit (UC) while receiving education (except if the reason they would qualify is that they are waiting to return to their course after taking time out because of illness or caring responsibilities – see here).
 
1     Reg 13(4) CSP Regs »
2     Flemming v SSWP [2002] EWCA Civ 641; Wright-Turner v Department for Social Development [2002] NICA 2 »
Basic rules
As well as being a student who is eligible to claim, to qualify for CSP you must satisfy all of the following conditions.1Regs 2, 4, 5, 6, 12 and 14 CSP Regs
    •You are aged 16 or over.
    •You spend at least 35 hours a week caring for someone.
    •The person for whom you care gets a qualifying disability benefit: the middle or highest care component of child disability payment/disability living allowance/Scottish adult disability living allowance, the daily living component of adult disability payment/personal independence payment, attendance allowance, pension age disability payment, constant attendance allowance (in certain cases) or armed forces independence payment.
    •You do not already get CA, UC carer element because you care for someone else, or a young carer grant (but you can get CSP if you previously had a young carer grant).
    •You are not working and earning more than £196 a week.
    •You satisfy certain rules on residence and presence in the UK and are not a ‘person subject to immigration control’. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for details.
 
1     Regs 2, 4, 5, 6, 12 and 14 CSP Regs »
3. Amount of benefit
The amount of carer support payment (CSP) is £83.30 a week (April 2025 rate). You are also paid a supplement to increase your CSP (see here).
4. Claiming carer support payment
Carer support payment (CSP) is administered by Social Security Scotland (SSS). You can claim online at mygov.scot/carer-support-payment/how-to-apply, by phone on 0800 182 2222 or on the approved form.
Your claim can be backdated for up to 13 weeks if you qualified during that earlier period.
It can be backdated further if you claim within 13 weeks of the person you care for being awarded a disability benefit. Your claim is treated as made on the date you first qualified for CSP. If your entitlement under this rule would begin before CSP was introduced (19 November 2023), you can be treated as claiming carer’s allowance (CA) for the earlier period and awarded CSP.1Regs 18 and 19 CSP Regs
Extra backdating of CSP was possible for certain full-time students or for those who met the past presence test (see CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for what this means) for CSP but wouldn’t have met it for CA. To take advantage of these rules, claims for CSP had to be made within 13 weeks of CSP being introduced in your area. These dates are now past, but extra backdating may still be possible if you have ‘good reason’ for applying late.2Regs 18A and 18B CSP Regs
Claims up to 13 weeks in advance of entitlement are expected to be possible from November 2025.3The Social Security (Cross-border Provision, Case Transfer and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft)
Benefit is usually paid directly into a bank account, four weeks in arrears. In some cases, payment may be made weekly in advance.
Only one person can qualify for CSP, CA and/or the carer element of universal credit for caring for the same disabled person. If you and another person claim for the same person and both meet the entitlement conditions, you can agree who should be entitled. You should inform SSS of your decision in writing (signed by you both). If you cannot agree, SSS decides who is entitled (consulting the DWP if applicable) taking into account:
    •the best interests of the person you care for; and
    •whether you and the other person who claimed are related to the person you care for, live with or near them, or get any benefits on behalf of or in respect of them; and
    •any other relevant information.
If you get a determination that you are not entitled to CSP under these rules, you can request a redetermination.
 
1     Regs 18 and 19 CSP Regs »
2     Regs 18A and 18B CSP Regs »
3     The Social Security (Cross-border Provision, Case Transfer and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft) »
5. Challenging a decision
If you think a decision (‘determination’) about your carer support payment is wrong, you can ask Social Security Scotland (SSS) to look at it again. This process is known as a ‘redetermination’. The time limit for requesting a redetermination is 42 days from the date of the determination. SSS then has 56 days to notify you of the new determination. If you are still not happy when you get this notice, you can appeal to the independent First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. If it was not possible to ask SSS to redetermine the determination within the time limit, but you ask for a redetermination within one year of the determination, this can be considered as long as you have ‘good reason’ for lateness.1s41(4)(b) SS(S)A 2018 You can also ask SSS to look at a determination again at any time if certain grounds are met – eg, if there has been a change in your circumstances.
 
1     s41(4)(b) SS(S)A 2018 »
6. Other benefits
The benefit cap does not apply if you get carer support payment (CSP).
The disabled person’s benefit
Your entitlement to CSP depends on the person for whom you care continuing to get their disability benefit. If their benefit stops, your benefit should also stop. To avoid being overpaid, make sure you tell Social Security Scotland if the disabled person’s qualifying disability benefit stops being paid.
Note: although CSP may mean more money for you, it may result in the person for whom you care losing some income-related employment and support allowance (ESA), pension credit or housing benefit (HB). If they live alone, they may be getting a severe disability premium included in the assessment of these benefits. They cannot continue to get this premium if you get CSP for them. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for details and, if in doubt, get advice before claiming.
Overlapping benefits
Although CSP is not means tested, you cannot receive it at the same time as certain other overlapping benefits, including maternity allowance, widowed parent’s allowance, retirement pension, new-style jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) or contributory ESA. If you are eligible for CSP and an overlapping benefit, CSP is reduced by the amount of the other benefit (and may be reduced to nil). If you cannot be paid CSP because of these rules, you still have an underlying entitlement to it. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits Handbook for more information.
Getting a carer premium or element
If you are a student getting CSP and claiming universal credit (UC), you are eligible for a carer element in your UC, and you are not expected to look for work. If you are getting income-related ESA or HB, a carer premium is included in these benefits, even if your CSP is not being paid because you are getting another benefit that overlaps with it.
Scottish carer supplement
If you get CSP on a qualifying date, you are entitled to a top-up payment from SSS called a ‘carer’s allowance supplement’. Each payment of £293.50 covers a six-month period. The qualifying dates for 2025 are 14 April (paid in June 2025) and 13 October (paid in December 2025). You must actually be receiving CSP on the qualifying date – an underlying entitlement is not enough. The CA supplement is disregarded for all means-tested benefits. There is no need to make a claim for CA supplement; it should be paid automatically.
The CA supplement will change to a ‘Scottish carer supplement’ from March 2026, to be paid alongside CSP.1The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft)
 
1     The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft) »
Carer additional person payment
A new carer additional person payment of £10 a week per additional person cared-for is to be introduced from March 2026.1The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft) There will be no limit on the number of cared-for people that someone can get an additional payment for, but you must care for them for at least 20 hours a week. These 20 hours may run at the same time as the 35 hours of care needed to get CSP – for example a carer may be caring for more than one person in the same property, and therefore some of the caring for each person may take place at the same time.
You can only get the carer additional person payment if you already get CSP. You can’t get it if you only have underlying entitlement to CSP, for example because you get a state pension or other overlapping benefit.
 
1     The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft) »
Young carer grant
The young carer grant is a one-off grant of £390.25 (2025 rate), payable once a year. Eligible young carers are those aged 16–18 (regardless of their circumstances) who are not getting CSP. To qualify, you must be providing care for at least 16 hours a week in total, although this can be a combination of care for up to three people. The cared-for people must be in receipt of one of the benefits that allows entitlement to CSP (see here). You must also have provided care in at least 10 of the last 13 weeks. Apply to SSS by phone, in writing or online – see mygov.scot/young-carer-grant/how-to-apply.
The young carer grant will be extended to 19-year-olds from sometime in November 2025.1The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft)
For up-to-date information on the young carer grant, see cpag.org.uk/young-carer-grant.
 
1     The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (draft) »