Last Day to Make HMRC Claims

Today (Friday 5 April) is the last day to claim for: Carer’s Credit to boost your state pension and the marriage tax allowance.

Boost Your State Pension with Carer’s Credit

If you are aged 16 to 65 and provide 20 hours or more unpaid care, you can boost your state pension with Carer’s Credit. Carer’s credit is a national insurance (NI) ‘credit’ for people who provide care for at least 20 hours a week and aren’t yet at state pension age. It’s designed to protect your NI record from gaps, as many Carers might need to give up paid work to provide care for someone. While this doesn’t entitle you to any financial help now, it can boost your state pension by £1,000s in the future.

Who Can Claim Carer’s Credit?

To get carer’s credit you need to fulfil these three criteria:

1. You must be aged between 16 and state pension age. The current state pension age is 66 for men and women, but yours may be different depending on your age, so check the Government’s state pension age calculator.
2. You must look after one or more people for at least 20 hours a week. You don’t get more ‘credits’ if you look after more than one person. You can still get carer’s credit if you have breaks from caring (up to 12 weeks in a row), such as if you take a holiday, go into hospital, or the person you’re caring for goes into hospital.
3. The person(s) you’re caring for usually also needs to receive at least one of these benefits:
   – Disability living allowance (‘care component’ at the middle or highest rate)
   – Attendance allowance
   – Constant attendance allowance
   – Personal independence payment (the daily living part at the standard or enhanced rate)
   – Armed forces independence payment
   – Child disability payment at the middle or highest rate
   – Adult disability payment daily living component at the standard or enhanced rate
   
   Though if the person you care(d) for doesn’t get one of the above, you could still be eligible for carer’s credit, so it’s still worth trying – fill in the ‘care certificate’ part of the application form and get a health or social care professional to sign it. Follow Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert guide and claim Carer’s Credit.

Marriage Tax Allowance

If you’re married or in a civil partnership and under 89 years old, you may be entitled to a £1,260 tax break called the marriage tax allowance – something around 2.1 million qualifying couples miss out on. It’s really easy to apply and take advantage of this tax break. This guide walks you through who’s eligible and how to claim.

The marriage tax allowance allows you to transfer £1,260 of your personal allowance to your spouse or civil partner if they earn more than you. Your personal allowance is the amount you can earn tax-free each tax year. It takes into account all taxable income, whether that’s a salary, pension or other forms of income – meaning even pensioners drawing a pension may qualify. 

If your claim is successful, it will lower the higher earner’s tax bill for the tax year, but you can also backdate your claim if eligible. Only people with specific circumstances will be able to apply:

• You need to be married or in a civil partnership. Just living together doesn’t count.
• One of you needs to be a non-taxpayer. This usually means you’ll earn less than the £12,570 personal allowance between 6 April 2023 and 5 April 2024. To get the full benefit, the non-taxpayer actually needs to earn £11,310 or less.
• The other partner needs to be a basic 20% rate taxpayer. This means you’d normally need to earn less than £50,270, or if you live in Scotland, £43,662. Higher or additional-rate taxpayers aren’t eligible for this allowance.
• You both must have been born on or after 6 April 1935. If not, there’s a different tax perk. 

In simple terms, one of you must be a non-taxpayer and one must be a basic-rate taxpayer.

Beware googling ‘marriage tax allowance’. Some shyster firms will charge you for applying (they try to look official), but it’s FREE to apply. Follow Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert guide and the correct links below to do it safely and at no cost.

If you need further help, call Birmingham Carers Hub on 0333 006 9711, if we are busy, leave a message and we will endeavour to return your call. If you haven’t tried our benefits calculator yet, give it a go today.