The main income supports to carers provided by my Department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Spending in 2026 is expected to amount to over €2.2 billion on these payments.
In general, a person may only receive one primary social welfare payment at a time to meet a particular contingency. However, in recognition of the vital role of caring, an important exception applies. Where a person is receiving a full-time social welfare payment such as the State Pension and is also providing full-time care for at least 35 hours per week, they may receive up to half the Carer’s Allowance rate in addition to their primary payment. This arrangement applies across almost all weekly social welfare payments.
At the end of 2025, there were 49,234 carers benefiting from these arrangements. Of these, approximately 14,500 were receiving a State Pension (Contributory) or State Pension (Non-contributory).
This means that a person in receipt of Carer’s Allowance who qualifies for the full State Pension (Contributory) on reaching age 66 and retains a half-rate Carer’s Allowance could see their payment increase from €270 a week to a combined pension and carer's payment of €453.30 per week. In terms of financial impact, this represents a weekly increase of up to €183.30.
The Government is committed to supporting carers and the main focus is the process of phasing out the means test, which is well underway. This month, the weekly income disregard increased from €625 to €1,000 for a single person and from €1,250 to €2,000 for carers who are part of couple.
The Programme for Government commitments in relation to carers will continue to be advanced over the lifetime of the Government, having regard to the overall policy and budgetary context.
