Carer’s budget for support
If you are eligible for formal support for yourself as an unpaid carer, you may be allocated a budget to pay for the support.
Every council in Scotland has a different approach to how it allocates budgets to carers. Your experience of this is likely to depend on where you live.
You may find it helpful to speak to your local Carers’ Centre. They can tell you what to expect about carer budgets in your local area, and help you understand how they work.
You can find details of your local Carers’ Centre here.
I have been allocated a budget, how does it work?
If you are allocated a budget to pay for your support, you can decide how much control and responsibility you want to have for managing the budget. This is called Self-directed Support.
You may want to take the budget as a cash payment, and be responsible for choosing how it is spent and keeping track of spending.
Or, you may want to decide how it should be spent, but ask someone else to manage the budget on your behalf.
Find out more about how this works and the options you have in the next article: Deciding how much control and responsibility you want to have around your support (carers)
What can I spend a carer support budget on?
You can use your budget for any of the needs that have been identified in your Adult Carer Support Plan.
For example, you could choose to spend the budget on gym membership to help you keep healthy, counselling to support your wellbeing, or transport to make it easier for you to stay in work.
These are just examples and every person’s needs will be different. No two people will spend their budget in the same way.
Your local Carers’ Centre can help you think about how best to spend your budget to meet your needs.
Can I be asked to pay towards my own support?
Adults who need support may be asked to contribute towards that support, depending on their financial circumstances. See the article: Paying towards your social care support (care charging)
This is not the case if you are a carer.
If you have been allocated a support budget as a carer, you cannot be asked to make a contribution from your own money towards the cost of your support.
Next steps
If you have been allocated a budget, you can decide how much control and responsibility you want to have for managing it.
Find out more on the next page: Deciding how much control and responsibility you want to have around your support (carers)
Some people are able to get a carer’s budget in place and decide how best to use it without any issues.
But we know that some common issues come up for people.
Here is what do to if any of these things happen to you.
I have been told I cannot get a budget as a carer, or my budget is very low
Unfortunately, there are no national rules that say councils must give carers a certain level of budget to pay for their support. This can and does vary quite a lot from area to area.
If you have been told you cannot get a budget, you could speak to your local Carers’ Centre for advice. They can tell you about other types of support that might help, or could support you to challenge the decision.
You can find details of your local Carers’ Centre here.
I have been allocated a carer’s budget, but I am finding it hard to be able to spend it
Unfortunately, we know that even if carers can access a budget, it is sometimes not easy to be able to spend it in the way that they would like. This could be because of the lack of available services in your area.
The rules around Self-directed Support say that you should be able to spend your budget flexibly to meet your needs.
If you are having trouble spending your budget on a certain thing, you should be able to explore different ways of spending it that will still help you meet your needs.
If you are not able to spend all your budget, the same guidance applies to adults who need support as it does to carers. Find out more here: What happens if you do not spend all your budget?
You may find it helpful to speak to your local Carers’ Centre for advice if you are finding it hard to spend your budget.
You can find details of your local Carers’ Centre here.