Carers personal budget

The Carers Personal Budget is a one-off payment that aims to give you a break.

How the Carers Personal Budget can help you

You can use the money to pay for activities that will give you time for yourself and the chance to pursue your own interests. For example, you can:

  • enjoy more leisure or social activities
  • take part in education or training courses
  • improve your health and well-being.

You can't use your Carers Personal Budget to:

  • buy services for the person you care for that would normally come out of the community care budget, such as residential respite care
  • pay for goods or services that you have already bought
  • pay for everyday living expenses such as food shopping, heating, lighting, council tax, rent or mortgage payments.

Who is eligible

To be eligible for the Carers Personal Budget you must be:

  • over 16
  • providing ‘regular and substantial care' for someone aged over 18 who is ill or disabled, or has a mental health or substance misuse problem
  • caring for someone who needs, or is already receiving, community care services.

The person you're caring for must live at home in East Sussex, but you don't have to live with them.

How much you could get

We will take your individual circumstances into account when we work out how much your Carers Personal Budget will be.

We will look at what you want to achieve with the money, such as getting fit or having an active social life. We give priority to carers where there is a significant risk of the caring role breaking down.

Not everyone gets the same amount, and it won't necessarily cover everything you want. We need to make sure that the decisions we make about awards are consistent, fair and based on need.

The Carers Personal Budget is usually limited to one per year. The payment is non-taxable and will not be taken into account for benefit purposes.

How to apply

You can only get a Carers Personal Budget once we have looked at your circumstances. We do this through a carers assessment:

To find out more about the Carers Personal Budget or to ask for a carers assessment, please get in touch with us: