Carer Support Payment: apply its earnings limit #2548

carer_support_payment_pre_overlap pays Carer Support Payment (CSP) to a carer in Scotland who meets the hours condition, or reports Carer's Allowance, and would claim. It applies no earnings test:

eligible = in_scotland & csp_in_effect & (meets_hours | receives_ca) & would_claim
return eligible * csp.rate * WEEKS_IN_YEAR

parameters/gov/social_security_scotland/carer_support_payment/ holds min_hours, rate, supplement and overlapping_benefits, but no earnings limit.

In law, CSP has an earnings limit, as Carer's Allowance does. mygov.scot (If you work) says a carer cannot earn more than £204 a week after tax, National Insurance and expenses. Social Security Scotland (Change to earnings limit for carers, April 2025) raised the limit from £151 to £196, after tax, National Insurance and half of any pension contribution. These are the deductions carers_allowance_earnings already makes for Carer's Allowance.

Effects

• A Scottish carer over the limit who reports Carer's Allowance, or whom a dataset marks as would-claim, is paid CSP.
• A reform to the CSP earnings limit changes no one's entitlement.
• Microcosm keeps Scotland closed in its Carer's Allowance take-up draw (UK Carer's Allowance: would_claim follows reported receipt, so earnings-limit reforms reach 4,600 new carers against an official 61,000 microcosm#1319, UK pre-Budget data: measure stored values at their period, draw Carer's Allowance claims, and the #1278 items (#1324, #1319, #1278) microcosm#1329), because a draw there would pay CSP to carers over the limit. So a Scottish earnings-limit reform reaches no new claimant on Microcosm files until this lands.

Proposal

• Add gov.social_security_scotland.carer_support_payment.earnings_limit: a weekly amount after deductions, £151 to 5 April 2025, £196 from 6 April 2025, and the current figure from mygov.scot, with each date checked against Social Security Scotland's notices.
• In carer_support_payment_pre_overlap, refuse a carer whose weekly earnings exceed it, as carers_allowance_pre_overlap does through is_gainfully_employed_for_carers_allowance. Reuse carers_allowance_earnings if the deductions match (they appear to).
• Tests: a Scottish carer just under and just over the limit, a reported recipient over it, and a reform that raises the limit.

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