The Government recognises the important role that family carers play in Irish society and is fully committed to supporting them through a range of supports and services.
My 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 all these payments to carers in 2022 is estimated to exceed €1.5 billion.
The Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. Carer’s Allowance is a means tested social assistance payment awarded to those carers who are caring for certain people who require full-time care and attention. The means test is used to target the support to those most in need.
The primary objective of the payment is to provide an income support to carers whose earning capacity is substantially reduced as a consequence of their caring responsibilities and in so doing to support the ongoing care of the person in respect of whom care is being provided.
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. It is payable for a period of 2 years (104 weeks) for each care recipient and may be claimed over separate periods up to a total of 2 years (104 weeks).
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 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 provision of full-time care and attention requirement is moderated somewhat by allowing a carer to work or engage in education or training for up to 18.5 hours. Budget 2020 changed the rules so that those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit and the Carer’s Support Grant could increase the number of hours they work, study or attend a training course from 15 to 18.5 hours. This measure was prioritised in response to the carers who expressed that they found 15 hours to be too restrictive, not only for work but for education and training purposes.
There are currently two separate Benefit of Work Estimators available on Gov.ie which aim to show Department customers how starting work or increasing work hours could affect their payments. One is for those in receipt of jobseeker and one parent family payments, while the other is for those in receipt of disability or illness payments. The latter was created as a result of a Make Work Pay Report Recommendation in relation to people with disabilities.
The Deputy’s suggestion would involve creating a new Benefit of Work Estimator specifically for those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit. The creation of a new estimator for this cohort would need to be considered by my Department in the context of a range of factors such as IT resources, development costs and potential usage.
It should be noted that the current income disregard and means test for Carer’s Allowance is the most generous within the social welfare system. The amount of weekly earnings disregarded is €332.50 for a single person and €665 for a couple.
As part of Budget 2022, I announced measures which will allow carers to have a higher weekly household income, as well as a higher level of savings, and still qualify for a Carer’s Allowance payment, as follows:
- From June, the income disregarded in the means test for Carer’s Allowance will increase to €350 for a single person, and to €750 for a couple.
- In addition, the amount of capital disregarded in the means test will be increased from €20,000 to €50,000.
I will continue to keep the range of income supports provided to family carers by this Department under review and will ensure that consultations with carer’s representative groups continue so that the overall objectives of the carer income support schemes provided are met.
In the meantime, my officials will examine the merits of the proposal outlined by the Deputy.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
