Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 November 2024
646. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline, noting the requirement to provide over 35 hours of care to qualify for carer’s allowance, the estimated additional cost of running the scheme if the payment were to be extended to all those who have self-declared in Census 2022 to be providing 15 hours care or more per week. [44191/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe main income supports to carers provided by my Department include Carer's Allowance, Carer's Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance, and the Carer's Support Grant. Spending on these payments in 2024 is expected to exceed €1.7 billion.
Carer’s Allowance is a means-tested payment for people living in Ireland who are looking after someone who needs full-time support because of age, physical or learning disability or illness, including mental illness. The primary objective of the Carer’s Allowance payment is to provide an income support to carers whose earning capacity is substantially reduced as a consequence of their full-time caring responsibilities and in so doing to support the ongoing care of the person in respect of whom care is being provided.
As set out in primary legislation for both the Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit payments, 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. A carer will be regarded as providing full-time care and attention to a relevant person, where the number of hours providing such care is not less than 35 hours in a period of 7 consecutive days, and care is provided on any 5 days, whether consecutive or not, within a period of 7 consecutive days. These supports are not designed for the provision of part-time care.
There are currently 97,366 people in receipt of Carer's Allowance and the estimated spend on this payment in 2024 is over €1.1 billion. The estimated spend on Carer’s Benefit this year is an additional €57.9 million.
According to Census 2022, there were 161,529 people who self-declared as caring for someone for over 15 hours per week. The estimated additional annual cost of extending the Carer’s Allowance and Benefit schemes to this cohort is €878.6 million.
This costing is based on the current rate of Carer’s Allowance of €248 for those aged under 66 and caring for 1 person and assumes that this cohort would meet all other scheme eligibility requirements for both carer and caree.
It is important to note that these costings are estimates based on current administrative data. They take no account of year-on-year increases in terms of recipients or increases in rates of payment.
The extension of the Carer’s Allowance payment to those providing part-time care, as proposed, would have implications for overall spending and as such could only be considered in an overall policy and Budgetary context.
I trust that this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.
