Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 September 2026
517. Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of previously unsuccessful applicants for Carer’s Allowance who have subsequently reapplied and qualified under the new thresholds, since 2020. [68703/26]
View answerCarer's Allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment for people who are providing full-time care and attention to a person who requires such care.
There are a number of qualifying conditions for Carer’s Allowance. These include conditions relating to the care recipient’s need for full-time care and attention, the provision of that care by the applicant, the applicant’s employment or education circumstances, residency requirements and satisfaction of the means test.
The Department does not hold the detailed data on the income of each individual household in the State that would allow it to identify the number of additional people who qualified specifically as a result of the increase in the income disregard. Furthermore, my Department does not collate statistics on the number of people who were unsuccessful and subsequently reapplied for Carer's Allowance.
The overall number of people receiving Carer's Allowance has increased each year since 2020. The number of recipients of Carer's Allowance at the end of each year from 2020 to 2025 are provided in the table below. While it is likely that much of this can be attributed to the increase in the means disregard, we cannot, in the absence of detailed information on the incomes of each individual household in the state, be definitive as to its impact.
Table 1: Carer's Allowance recipients, by year
|
Year |
Recipients |
|
2020 |
88,906 |
|
2021 |
90,889 |
|
2022 |
92,175 |
|
2023 |
95,787 |
|
2024 |
97,985 |
|
2025 |
104,522 |
|
end August 2026 |
111,027 |
