The free help a family carer can ask for

You will not need everything in this table at once. If you only do one thing this week, ring the council and ask for a carer's assessment, because it opens the door to most of the practical help in the first two rows. If you are working, the last two rows are worth reading before your next difficult week at work.

This page is the round-up. Other guides in the caring for a parent section go deeper into single pieces: what a carer's assessment is and how to prepare for one, who can claim Carer's Allowance, how a break from caring gets paid for and what caregivers need most, which is about the emotional side of caring rather than the forms. Young carers under 18 have their own rights and their own support, which the NHS sets out in its guide to help for young carers.

Under the Care Act 2014, anyone who looks after an adult without being paid can ask their council for a carer's assessment. It looks at how caring affects your health, your work, your sleep and the rest of your life, and whether you can keep going as you are. It is free, and it does not depend on your income or savings. If your needs meet the national test, the council agrees a support plan with you, which can include a break, help around the house, equipment, or a direct payment to spend on the things in the plan. Ask the council that covers where the person you look after lives, by ringing adult social care and asking for a carer's assessment by name. The full picture, including how to prepare and what to do if you disagree with the outcome, is in what is a carer's assessment? If you do not know which council to ring, gov.uk has a council finder by postcode.

Alongside the council, most areas have a local carers' centre or carers' service. Some are independent charities and some are part of a national network. Carers Trust keeps a search of carer services near you by postcode, and says itself that not every area is covered by its network, so if nothing comes up, ask the council which organisation supports carers where you live. The NHS guide to carers' breaks points carers to the council or a local carers' centre for information about local support. What each centre offers is set by the centre, so ask them directly rather than assuming. The kinds of help a local carers' organisation may give are below.

When you first contact a carers' centre, it helps to say plainly who you look after, how many hours a week the caring takes, and which part of the week is hardest. That gives them something to work with. The same notes will be useful when the council does your carer's assessment, and if you keep a record of the week, keeping a care diary explains a simple way to do it.

Carers UK is the national charity for unpaid carers. Its helpline page lists a free phone line on 0808 808 7777 and an email advice service for more detailed questions, and its advice covers benefits, carers' rights, working while caring and planning for emergencies. It also runs an online forum for carers, open to its members, where you can ask other carers a question or talk about a hard day with people who understand. Membership is explained on the forum page. The NHS keeps a wider list of social care helplines and forums, and if the person you look after has dementia, Admiral Nurses, Dementia UK and the Alzheimer's Society explains the specialist help available for that.

Your GP practice is the other place to tell. There is no single national scheme for carers at GP surgeries, and what each practice does differs, but a few things are worth asking for wherever you are.

The flu vaccine rule is on the NHS flu vaccine page, and the NHS explains how family and carer access works, including for someone who cannot agree to it because of a condition such as dementia. Your own health is part of the caring. If you are close to the point where you cannot go on, the signs of caregiver burnout may help you put it into words for the GP.

These schemes are local, so whether one exists depends on where you live. They are usually set up by the council or a carers' centre, and they go by different names, such as a carer card, a carers emergency card or an emergency care scheme. Some councils and carers' centres also issue a carer ID card that identifies you as an unpaid carer. Neither kind of card is available everywhere, so ask your carers' centre or the council what runs in your area. Carers UK explains the emergency schemes on its page about getting help in an emergency, and the steps below follow its description.

1. 1

   You register with the scheme

   Where one exists

   Schemes are set up locally, often by the council or a carers' centre, and go by names such as carer card scheme, carers emergency card or emergency care scheme.
2. 2

   You write an emergency plan with a worker

   Before anything happens

   It says who the person you look after is, what they need through the day, and who could step in, such as a relative, a neighbour or a paid carer.
3. 3

   You carry a card

   Every day

   The card has the scheme's telephone number and an identification number, so your personal details are not printed on it.
4. 4

   Somebody rings the number if you are taken ill

   In an emergency

   An operator looks up your plan and makes arrangements for the person you look after. In some areas the schemes work with the police, fire and ambulance services.

Carer's Allowance is the best known of these. It is paid to you, not to the person you look after, and they must already get a qualifying benefit such as Attendance Allowance before you can claim. Only one person can get it for looking after the same person, and it overlaps with the State Pension, so if your pension is £86.45 a week or more you will not be paid Carer's Allowance itself. The rules on earnings, backdating and what changes when you claim are in the guide to Carer's Allowance, and gov.uk has the eligibility rules in full.

Carer's Credit is for the carers Carer's Allowance misses: people who care for at least 20 hours a week rather than 35, or who earn too much for the allowance. It pays nothing week to week, but it fills gaps in your National Insurance record so that caring does not reduce your State Pension. If the person you look after does not get a qualifying benefit, a health or social care professional can sign the care certificate part of the form instead. If you are on Universal Credit, the carer element has to be reported through your account, because it is not added automatically.

Council tax can also come down in a household where somebody is caring or disabled, through discounts, the disabled band reduction and Council Tax Reduction. Those are covered, with the other reliefs a family can claim, in council tax, VAT relief, Pension Credit and grants.

Carer's leave came in under the Carer's Leave Act 2023. It covers giving or arranging care for a dependant who has an illness or injury expected to need care for more than three months, a disability, or care needs because of old age, and the dependant does not have to be a relative. You do not need to give your employer evidence of their needs, and the request does not have to be in writing. The full rules are on gov.uk's page on carer's leave, and a flexible working request can cover your hours, your start and finish times, the days you work, or where you work. For emergencies, time off for dependants is a reasonable amount of time to deal with the situation. How to raise all of this with a manager, and how to plan a week around a job, is covered in balancing work with caring.

Some carers find that, even with every free option in place, they still need a few regular hours off. A carer who comes in for the same morning each week can give you that time without a stranger arriving at the last minute. On PrimeCarers, hourly carers charge £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, and you can search for carers near you and compare their rates. You agree the visits with the carer yourself, and the respite care guide covers the other ways to take a break, from a few hours to a short stay away.