Social Welfare Payments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 November 2022

Tuesday, 15 November 2022

Ceisteanna (388)

Marian Harkin

Ceist:

388. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide the most recent figure on the number of carers in receipt of carer's allowance, including half-rate carer's allowance; the number of carers who receive a reduced rate of carer's allowance due to means; and the breakdown of these rates by the number of person's receiving a carer's allowance payment under €100, between €100 and €150; between €150 and €200 and between €200 and €220, in tabular form. [56425/22]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social Protection

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 (including mental illness).  The person being cared for must require full-time care and attention. 

At the end of October 2022, there were 91,892 recipients of Carer's Allowance.  Of these, 42,136 were recipients of half-rate Carer's Allowance.

Based on their most recent payment, the breakdown of Carer's Allowance rates of payment is shown in Table 1 as follows.

Table 1: Rates of payment for Carer's Allowance recipients as at end October 2022.

Payment rate (€)	Number of recipients
< 100	4,434
100-150	40,537
150-200	8,350
200-220	628
220	37,943
Total	91,892