What is Married Couple's Allowance and who qualifies for it?

Full answer

Married Couple's Allowance (MCA) is often confused with the more commonly claimed Marriage Allowance, but the two are very different reliefs aimed at different age groups. **Who can claim it** MCA is only available to married couples or civil partners where at least one partner was born before 6 April 1935 -- meaning claimants are now in their nineties or older, or a much younger spouse is claiming based on an older partner's birth date. This makes it a shrinking population of claimants compared with Marriage Allowance, which anyone born after that date should look at instead. **How the relief is given** Unlike the Personal Allowance or Marriage Allowance (which increase how much income is tax-free), MCA works as a direct reduction in the amount of tax you owe, calculated at a fixed rate of 10% of the allowance. For 2026/27 the maximum MCA is worth £11,500 (frozen), giving a maximum tax reduction of £1,150 (10% of £11,500), though there is also a minimum amount guaranteed even for higher-income couples of £4,450 (10% = £445 minimum reduction). **Income tapering** MCA tapers down for every £2 of the higher earner's income above the income limit (£38,700 for 2026/27), reducing by £1 of allowance for every £2 above that threshold, until it reaches the minimum amount. It is usually the person with the higher income within the couple who claims it, though by default it goes to the husband for marriages that began before December 2005 unless a joint election to split it has been made; couples can elect to split the minimum amount or transfer the whole allowance to the other spouse. **Worked example** A couple where the husband was born in 1933 and has income of £30,000 (below the £38,700 taper threshold) can claim the full £11,500 MCA, reducing his tax bill by £1,150 (10% x £11,500) directly, on top of his normal £12,570 Personal Allowance. If his income were instead £50,000, the allowance would taper down towards the £4,450 minimum, giving a smaller but still guaranteed £445 reduction in tax owed. **Claiming MCA** MCA is usually given automatically through a tax code adjustment once HMRC is notified of eligibility (via Self Assessment or by contacting HMRC directly), and unlike Marriage Allowance it cannot be claimed by couples where both partners were born on or after 6 April 1935 -- those couples should instead check Marriage Allowance, which lets a non-taxpaying spouse transfer up to £1,260 of their unused Personal Allowance to a basic-rate-taxpayer partner. **Why this matters today** Given the birth-date cutoff, genuinely new MCA claims are now rare, but existing claimants (or a much younger surviving spouse in a marriage that began decades ago) should make sure the allowance and any splitting election are still correctly reflected in their tax code, since it is considerably more valuable than Marriage Allowance for those who qualify.

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