Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 October 2022
292. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Social Protection if there are circumstances whereby a person can claim a second period of carer’s benefit for a child previously claimed for; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50852/22]
View answerMy department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including 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.
A primary qualifying condition for the Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit payments is that the applicant provides full-time care and attention to a person in need of such a level of care. The person being cared for must be so incapacitated as to require full-time care and attention and be likely to require this full-time care and attention for at least 12 months.
The Carer's Benefit payment is an entitlement based on social insurance contributions. Carer’s Benefit is a payment made to insured people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person(s) in need of full-time care.
For a first claim the Carer must have:
- 156 PRSI contributions paid since entry into insurance, and
- 39 contributions paid in the relevant tax year or
- 39 contributions paid in the 12-month period before the start of Carer's Benefit or
- 26 contributions paid in the relevant tax year and 26 contributions paid in the year before that.
The relevant tax year is the second last complete tax year before the year in which the claim for Carer’s Benefit is made. So, for claims made in 2022, the relevant tax year is 2020.
Only contributions at Class A, B, C, D, H and E are counted towards Carer's Benefit. Class S (self-employed contributions) do not count.
It is payable in a single period or in separate periods for up to 2 years (104 weeks) in respect of each care recipient. In circumstances where a person claims Carer’s Benefit for less than six weeks in a row in any period, they must wait for a further six weeks before they can claim Carer’s Benefit to care for the same person again. In circumstances where the Carer's Benefit entitlement exhausts, after the maximum 104 weeks of payment in respect of the same caree, the carer can apply for the means-tested Carer's Allowance payment.
It should be noted that not all those claiming Carer’s Benefit opt to remain in payment for the full 104 weeks. The Department examined this matter in and found that the average duration on Carer’s Benefit was 76.5 weeks between 2018 and 2020.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
