What it is
An assessment by your local council of your own needs as an unpaid carer. It is separate from any assessment of the person you care for, and it does not depend on your income or savings, or on how many hours you provide.
You are entitled to one even if the person you care for refuses their own assessment.
How to ask
- Search for your council's adult social care team and ask for a carer's assessment by name.
- Say clearly that you are an unpaid carer and describe a typical week.
- Ask for it in writing if a phone call goes nowhere.
- A local carers' centre or Carers UK can make the request alongside you if that feels easier.
What to say in it
Describe your worst weeks, not your best ones. Carers habitually understate, and the assessment records what you say rather than what an assessor guesses.
Mention sleep, your own health, your job, and anything you have given up. All of those count.
What can come from it
- Respite so you can have a break.
- A direct payment for something that makes caring possible.
- Training, equipment, or help with transport.
- A referral to a local carers' service, which is often the most useful outcome of all.
The wider picture
a legal right
every unpaid carer in England can ask their council for a carer's assessment, whatever their income or savings.
Source: NHS
5.0 million
people in England and Wales provide unpaid care, according to the 2021 Census.