Ms Danielle McLaughlin:

Carer's allowance and pensions are not something we have dealt with a lot. However, we are concerned that when we look at figures for disallowances based on the habitual residence condition, they do not include carer's allowance. Some people have contacted us on this and anecdotally, through surveys which we did last year and this year, we see that people would return to look after a parent, probably temporarily, and leave again, but they might not have an income because they will not satisfy the habitual residency condition for carer's allowance. People take quite a financial risk to do that but they have no other option. That is something that concerns us. We are aware that the system for recording disallowances is being worked on to include carer's allowance but there are still no figures for last year.