Gerald Nash
Question:1299. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of removing the means test for carer’s allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41666/22]
View answerTuesday, 26 July 2022
Questions (1299)
Written answers
My Department provides a comprehensive package of income supports for carers including the Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on these payments to carers in 2022 is estimated to exceed €1.5 billion.
Carer’s Allowance is the primary scheme through which my Department supports carers in the community. Carer’s Allowance is a payment to people on low incomes who are caring full-time for a person who needs support because of age, disability or illness. The two principal conditions for receipt of Carer’s Allowance are that full time care and attention is required and is being provided, and that the means test is satisfied. There are currently 90,740 recipients of Carer’s Allowance. The projected expenditure in 2022 is approximately €990 million.
The conditions attached to payment of Carer’s Allowance are consistent with the overall conditions that apply to social assistance payments generally and which are based on an income need. The means test plays the critical role in determining whether or not an income need arises as a consequence of a particular contingency - be that illness, disability, unemployment or caring.
In Budget 2022, significant changes were made to the Carer’s Allowance means test. These were the first changes to the means test in 14 years:
- The capital and savings disregard for the Carer’s Allowance means assessment was increased from €20,000 to €50,000.
- The weekly income disregard was increased from €332.50 to €350 for a single person, and from €665 to €750 for carers with a spouse/partner.
The changes came into effect on 2nd June.
Removing the means test for Carer’s Allowance would, in effect, create a new universal social protection scheme for those meeting the scheme’s basic caring condition and would give rise to a very significant annual cost. Based on the number of carers identified in Census 2016, it is estimated that a universal carer’s payment could cost in the order of an additional €1.2 billion per annum.
Increased expenditure on this scale would fundamentally change the nature of financial support and clearly reduce the scope to fund other critical schemes and services.
I can assure the Deputy that I will continue to keep the range of income supports provided to family carers by this Department under review so as to ensure that the overall objectives of the carer income support schemes provided are met. However, any additional changes to the carer's means test would have to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.