Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 November 2024
691. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Social Protection the annual cost of deploying inspectors to assess compliance with State benefits for family carers, in each of the past ten years, in tabular form. [44977/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere are two Carers' schemes administered by my Department - Carer's Benefit which is linked to the customer's PRSI contribution record and Carer's Allowance which is a means-tested income support scheme.
Decisions on customers' applications for these Carers' schemes are made by Deciding Officers based in the Department's Longford office. On occasions, an application for a Carer's payment is referred by a Deciding Officer to a Social Welfare Inspector for further investigation of the customer's circumstances.
Social Welfare Inspectors work across all of the Department's schemes therefore it is not possible to identify the specific cost of deploying Social Welfare Inspectors to investigate compliance with any individual scheme such as Carer's Allowance or Benefit.
