Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 February 2021
583. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of increasing the means test threshold for entitlement to carer's allowance in €50 intervals up to €950 per week; and the estimated number of additional recipients in tabular form. [10350/21]
View answerThe Government acknowledges the crucial role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy.
The main income supports for carers provided by my Department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on all these payments to carers in 2021 is expected to exceed €1.4 billion.
At the end of December 2020, there were 88,906 people in receipt of Carer's Allowance. The estimated expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in 2021 is approximately €953 million.
Carer's Allowance is a means tested payment made to people whose income falls below certain limits, and who are looking after certain people in need of full-time care and attention. The means test for Carer’s Allowance is one of the most generous in the social protection system. Currently €332.50 of gross weekly income is disregarded in the calculation of means for a single person; the equivalent for someone who is married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting is €665 of combined gross weekly income.
An estimate of the full-year cost of increasing the means test threshold for entitlement to carer's allowance in €50 intervals up to €950 per week is not available in the timeframe within which the response to the Deputy's question must be provided. Carer's Allowance has recently been included in the updated ESRI SWITCH microsimulation model which is used for estimates such as the one requested. When the estimates are available from my Department, I will revert to the Deputy directly with the costings.
Carers who would benefit from an increased disregard would be in higher income households. Some 86% of the current recipients of Carer’s Allowance have no means or means of less than €7.60 per week and would not benefit by an increase in the disregard.
Changes to schemes may only be considered in an overall budgetary and policy context and from an evidence-based perspective.
I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.
