Should I bother with Carer's Allowance?

HI and welcome,

To be able to claim the carers element of UC for looking after your dad he must be claiming a qualifying benefit such as PIP daily living, DLA mid/high rate care or Attendance Allowance and you must be looking after him for at least 35 hours per week.

If he does claim one of those and he lives alone then you need to make sure he's not claiming  severe disability premium in one of his benefits, if he does and your claiming the carers element or carers allowance for looking after him then he will lose that premium and it will stop, which could affect any other benefits he's claiming.

You do not have to claim carers allowance to claim the carers element. The only advantage to claiming carers allowance is it pays class 1 NI where as UC pays class 3. Also if you live in Scotland claiming carers allowance will entitle you to extra money twice a year.

You can work and claim carers element and there's no earning restrictions like there is with carers allowance. However, if you have no dependent children then you won't have a work allowance and you'll see reductions of 63p for every £1 you earn.