Dependant's Allowance proposal for our sector - you can help
28th of September, 2026
Dear colleagues.
NALC is supporting Weymouth Town Council (WTC) on work to re-submit a Sustainable Communities Act proposal on the Dependants’ Carers’ Allowance to Government by end this year and WTC and NALC would be very grateful if you could please forward on the below text and attached letter template to all member councils in your patch as soon as possible – thanks:
Weymouth Town Council Sustainable Communities Act Dependants’ Carers’ Allowance updated proposal
Weymouth Town Council has confirmed that it will be requesting re-submission of an amended Dependants’ Carers’ Allowance proposal to the Government in the next few months. Currently principal authorities have the right to make payments using this allowance to their councillors to assist them to part pay for childcare and dependants’ care while those councillors attend council business such as council meetings. This same right is not currently given to parish and town councils. Back in August Weymouth Town Council (WTC) spoke to the NALC Policy Committee who were incredibly supportive and NALC Officers have advised us and guided us on the way forward. On 2nd September this year Weymouth Town Council formally agreed to appeal the government’s decision (from April 2026) that this right should not be granted to parish and town councils) and the council is grateful for NALC’s backing in supporting it in that. WTC is currently surveying its residents and NALC have recently surveyed all councils. The results from the WTC survey will form part of the submission from Weymouth Town Council to NALC, with a view to NALC resubmitting the proposal in December 2026. Today we are asking for your help in righting this inequality and we want to ask you to write to your MP to highlight this issue and to say that you support the forthcoming appeal. Some suggested text is contained in the attached letter template for you to fill in and send to your local MPs. Please email Jane.Biscombe@weymouthtowncouncil.gov.uk if your parish or town council is interested in helping with this campaign more widely.
The proposal is very highly likely to be submitted to Govt. in/by December 2026 so writing now to MPs will raise awareness with them ahead of time
Many thanks for this.
Chris
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