Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 October 2024
484. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Social Protection to provide the full-year cost of increasing the income disregards for single and couples for carer’s allowance by €25, €50, €75, €100, €125, €150, €175, €200, €225, €250, €275, €300, €325, €350, €375, €400, €425, €450, €475 and €500, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42608/24]
View answerIncome disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, their income from work to the level of the income disregard, is not assessed in the means test.
As part of Budget 2025, I further increased the Carer's Allowance disregard to €625 for a single person, and €1,250 for carers with a spouse/partner, to commence in July 2025. A detailed costing was undertaken and the estimated the full year cost to increase the income disregard for Carer's Allowance to €625 for a single person and €1,250 per couple is €23.6 million.
The Department does not currently have the available data and modelling capacity to provide a detailed estimate for the full year cost of increasing the disregards for single people and couples by €25, €50, €75, €100, €125, €150, €175, €200, €225, €250, €275, €300, €325, €350, €375, €400, €425, €450, €475 and €500.
A very high-level estimate is that the cost of increasing disregards so that the disregard level is between €500 and €750 for single people and €1,000 and €1,400 for couples would be in the region of €9 million and €35 million, respectively, in a full year.
