Carer's Allowance is paid for caring for someone with no qualifying disability benefit (SSCBA 1992 s. 70(1)-(2)) #2310

What the law says

Carer's Allowance is paid for caring for a severely disabled person (SSCBA 1992 s. 70(1)). That means someone who receives:

• Attendance Allowance;
• the DLA care component at the middle or highest rate;
• the PIP daily living component;
• Armed Forces Independence Payment;
• or a constant attendance allowance or another payment prescribed by reg. 3 of SI 1976/409 (s. 70(2)).

The parameter gov.dwp.carers_allowance.qualifying_disability_benefits already lists the Attendance Allowance, DLA care and PIP daily living limbs.

What the model does

carers_allowance_pre_overlap tests hours alone (care_hours >= 35). is_severely_disabled_for_carers_allowance exists, but it is read only by is_cared_for_by_carer_benefit_recipient, so it never gates the allowance. The docstring of is_carer_for_benefits records the simplification: "the hours limb tests hours alone, as carers_allowance_pre_overlap does: it does not check that the person cared for receives a qualifying disability benefit".

Minimal reproduction

policyengine-uk 2.126.7 and main at 6d89338. A carer aged 45, caring 40 hours a week for their partner, who has no disability benefit:

situation = {
    "people": {
        "carer": {"age": {"2026": 45}, "care_hours": {"2026": 40}},
        "caree": {"age": {"2026": 50}},
    },
    "benunits": {"b": {"members": ["carer", "caree"]}},
    "households": {"h": {"members": ["carer", "caree"], "country": {"2026": "ENGLAND"}}},
}
Simulation(situation=situation).calculate("carers_allowance", 2026)
# array([4495.4, 0.])   the law gives 0

Why this is an issue, not a fix PR

Survey caring hours count care for anyone, including people outside the household. So the model can't simply require a severely disabled member of the household without dropping carers of non-residents. Two ways forward need a maintainer's choice:

1. An input. Add an input naming whether the person cared for receives a qualifying benefit. It would default to true, so microsimulation is unchanged, and household calculations could state it.
2. A household check. Where the person cared for is in the household (for example, care_hours set on one partner), require that some member be is_severely_disabled_for_carers_allowance.

How it was found

The PolicyBench UK round 2 internal audit (October 2026). In its carers stratum, the cared-for partner has no disability benefit in 20% of households. The affected audit cells will be added below.