Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of potential impact of the potential impact of proposals to amend Carer's Allowance in the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, on costs to (a) local authority adult social care services and (b) NHS.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out our plans to reform health and disability benefits and employment support. There are no proposals to amend Carer’s Allowance in the Pathways to Work Green Paper and therefore no such estimate has been made.

As the Green Paper sets out, we will consider any impacts our reforms might have on benefits for unpaid carers as part of our wider consideration of responses to the consultation and as we develop our detailed proposals for change. We will also continue to work closely with the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure everyone’s health and care needs are met.

Our plans are designed to protect the most vulnerable and give disabled people equal chances and choices to work. They are backed by £1bn a year for employment support to give disabled people and people with health conditions help into work that they have been denied for too long. Evidence shows that good work is good for mental and physical health and reduces pressure and costs on the NHS.

We are taking other action to improve Carer’s Allowance separate to the Green Paper. We have pegged the weekly Carer’s Allowance earnings limit to 16 hours’ work at National Living Wage (NLW) levels, and in future it will increase when the NLW increases. The Carer’s Allowance earnings limit increased to be £196 a week net earnings on 7 April 2025, compared to £151 in 24/25. This is the largest ever increase in the earnings limit since Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976 and the highest percentage increase since 2001. Over 60,000 additional people will be able to receive Carer’s Allowance between 2025/26 and 2029/30 as a result.