Carers Allowance - Effect of Financial Reward Paid to Volunteer

I have a young man who volunteers for me on a part-time basis. He is in receipt of Carers Allowance. I understand that he cannot ‘earn’ more than £100 per week.

If I pay him a financial award as ‘Volunteer of the Year’ which is over £100 will he be dis-entitled to CA for the week in which it is paid? Does the claim terminate and have to be re-instated?

How can I best reward the volunteer’s commitment without putting his day-to-day income at risk or exposing him to unnecessary bureaucracy?

Thanks in advance

A

Bear in mind that as he is in receipt of CA then he may also be in receipt of Income Support, which is also affected by “earnings”.
I’m not sure however that a one off payment would count anyway as i don’t think that such a gratuity would necessarily be classed as “earned income” for the purposes of CA or Income support.
Over to you guys!

The payment shouldn’t matter.  For CA a person must not be “gainfully employed”.  That means work done under a contract of service; or is self employed.  A volunteer is not under a contract and is not self employed.  A one off payment is likely to be capital for IS and unless he already has over £6,000 or £15,900 would not be significant.