Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 29 Apr 1999

Vol. 504 No. 1

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Róisín Shortall

Ceist:

73 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he has decided on the new regulations for the carer's allowance; if not, the reason for the delay; when a decision will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11250/99]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

I introduced a range of measures in the 1999 budget, at an additional annual cost of over £18 million, to improve and develop the position of carers. These measures, which are set out below, were based on a detailed examination of the review of the carer's allowance, which I published in October 1998.

The main improvements include: the extension of the carer's allowance to carers of children in receipt of a domiciliary care allowance (DCA); the extension of the carer's allowance to carers of all people between 16 and 65 who require full-time care and attention; an annual payment of £200 as a contribution towards respite care to all qualified carers; the extension of the free telephone rental allowance to all qualified carers; the relaxation of the residency conditions for receipt of carer's allowance; the relaxation of the full-time care and attention conditions for receipt of carer's allowance; the amendment of the means test to give carers income disregards in their own right; the introduction of measures to ensure that carers' social insurance records are preserved; the extension of the free travel scheme to all qualified carers.

In addition to the above measures the carer's allowance will increase in June this year by £3 per week for recipients of the allowance who are under age 66 and by £6 per week for those who are over age 66. This represents an increase of 4.1 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively on current rates.

The Social Welfare Act, 1999 provides for the extension of the carer's allowance to carers of those between the ages of 16 and 65 and to carers of children in receipt of DCA, the increase in the rates of carer's allowance, the annual respite care payment and the improvement to the means test. Regulations covering the other improvements will be introduced in the next few months as these improvements take place.

The administrative information and qualifying conditions relating to these changes will be publicised around the implementation date set for each measure.