asked the Minister for Social Welfare why a female relative will not qualify for an allowance for an old age pensioner if there are more than herself and the pensioner living together even though she provides full time care and attention for her.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Female Relative Allowance.
5.
The allowance for an old age pensioner to which the Deputy refers is intended to help in cases where a daughter or other prescribed relative is unable to earn her living, or qualify for any other benefit or assistance payment, because she is obliged to remain at home to care for a pensioner who has no one else to look after him. These conditions do not obtain in a household which includes other capable adults. Residence in the household of children under 16 or persons over that age who are incapacitated does not debar a pensioner from receiving the allowance.
Would the Minister not agree that in a case such as this where a married daughter or a daughter-in-law living with her husband and children in the house and looking after an old age pensioner it would be better for the State to give the small allowance rather than have the old person sent to an institution, which is certain to happen if the old age pensioner has nobody to care for him?
The purpose of the allowance is to try to keep old people at home.
Will the Minister not agree that if the allowance is not given in this case it may happen that the old person cannot remain at home? In such a situation it could happen that the daughter-in-law may be inclined to say that she is unable to keep the old person at home.
A daughter or daughter-in-law is one of the prescribed female relatives, provided she is not wholly maintained by her husband.
That is the trouble— that so many of these people are married women.