Vol. 515 No. 4
25 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the estimated cost of increasing the weekly income disregard for the carer's allowance to £250 in the case of a married couple and to £125 in the case of a single person. [6110/00]
30 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the reason carers in receipt of social welfare payments are effectively excluded from qualifying for a carer's allowance; and if he will change the system in this regard and relax the means test. [6238/00]
53 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of carers in receipt of the full and reduced payment rates from his Department. [6207/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 25, 30 and 53 together.
The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to carers on low incomes who look after people who need full time care and attention. At the end of January 2000, there were 14,964 carer's allowances in payment. This represents a 60% increase in the number of carers claiming the allowance since this Government took office. Of this number, 12,302 or over 80% of carer's allowance were payable at the maximum rate and 2,662 were in payment at a reduced rate.
The review of the carer's allowance, which was published in October 1998, noted that the carer's allowance is an income support payment and not a payment for caring. It examined the issue of paying the carer's allowance in conjunction with another social welfare payment and concluded that the practice of paying only one allowance should continue as this is a fundamental feature, with very few exceptions, of all social welfare payments and is designed to ensure that limited resources are not used to make two income support payments to any one individual. A person qualifying for two social welfare payments will always receive the higher payment to which they are entitled.
The review also examined the means test and considered that it should be maintained as a way of targeting scarce public resources towards those who are most in need. The review noted that the means test applied to the carer's allowance is one of the more generous tests in terms of the assessment of household income.
