Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of raising the earnings threshold for Carer’s Allowance to work for up to (a) 16 and (b) 21 hours a week at National Living Wages rates for 2023/24.

In November 2022, the department committed to increasing the Carer’s Allowance earnings threshold from £132 to £139 net earnings per week from April 2023.

The department estimates that the additional Carer’s Allowance Annually Managed Expenditure in 2023/24, from linking the weekly earnings limit to 16 hours work at National Living Wage levels and raising it to £167 a week, would be approximately £30 million. The corresponding figure for linking it to 21 hours work and raising it to £219 a week is around £90 million.