Ms Clare Duffy:

On behalf of Family Carers Ireland my colleague Catherine Cox and I welcome the opportunity to speak to the committee today about the report of the Commission on Pensions and specifically its recommendations on the development of a sustainable State pension system that recognises rather than penalises family carers and values the immense contribution they make through their years of care giving in the same way that we value social insurance contributions paid through PRSI. Family Carers Ireland is heartened by the programme for Government commitment to address the long-standing pension anomaly affecting family carers which was transposed into the terms of reference of the pensions commission. We were fortunate enough to make a written and oral submission to the commission and warmly welcome the recommendations contained in its report published last month.

Our position with regard to the State pension reflects the lived experience of family carers, the majority of whom are women, who have been denied a State pension or who receive a reduced pension as a direct consequence of their years spent care giving. Government policy has long supported initiatives to maintain the care of people in their own homes. These long-standing and laudable ambitions, while welcome, are entirely predicated on the availability and willingness of family and friends to take on a caring role. Today, one in eight people in Ireland provides care. We estimate that this number will need to increase to one in five by 2030 to meet the growing demand for care. If we are to achieve this, then Government must replace any remaining archaic policies that penalise family caregiving, not least of which are elements of the existing pension regime that allow a long-term carer to reach retirement age with no entitlement to a State pension or only a reduced entitlement. While the number of carers affected is low at approximately 100 carers per year, the impact on them and the message this sends to broader caring community is significant.

In our submission to the commission we placed particular emphasis on long-term carers, that is those who have cared for more than 20 years and are, therefore, unlikely to have paid the 520 contributions necessary to qualify for a contributory State pension nor are they protected by the safeguards that currently exist within the State pension regime. These safeguards are in place to protect a person’s entitlement to a State pension in later life. However, anomalies exist within each safeguard that undermine their value and put carers at risk of falling through the net. What are these anomalies and how do they affect family carers?

First, the general point must be made that the pension system is incredibly complicated and the general population, including carers are often confused or misinformed about their pension entitlements. There is a general understanding among some that there is no significant difference between the contributory and non-contributory State pension, at only €10 to €20 per week but people do not understand that the non-contributory State pension is means tested. There is a mistaken belief that it is a guaranteed payment.

Another major issue for carers is the requirement for applicants to have at least 520 paid contributions, which renders most of the safety net schemes ineffective for family carers who have not secured ten years of paid contributions. This is a particular challenge for long-term carers who have been forced to leave employment, often at a relatively young age, following the birth of a child with special needs. The 520 contributions rule also undermines the value of the current homemaker's scheme.

The imposition of a means test on the increase for a qualified adult, IQA, for both the contributory and non-contributory State pension has led to some family carers not qualifying for an IQA based on their income or assets. The two-year rule with regard to credited social insurance contributionsmeans some family carers are not receiving credits while in receipt of carer's allowance, a fact many carers are oblivious to. The disregard of €20,000 in respect of savings and capital for the non-contributory pension is disproportionately low, particularly for families who have put aside money to make provision for the future care of their loved one. The assessment of land not productively used is unfair to some landowners who may be unable to sell, rent or use the land themselves. There are also issues with the differential treatment of people who are employed versus those who are self-employed in respect of the €200 weekly disregard in earnings for the non-contributory State pension.

One fact that is often overlooked but, thankfully, was reflected in the pension commission's report is that carers whose partner is or was employed by the Civil Service and who receives a pre-1995 Civil Service pension are not afforded the normal protections offered through the State pension system.

Family Carers Ireland acknowledges the positive changes brought about through the introduction of the interim total contributions approach, TCA, which has addressed a significant number of the legacy issues associated with the yearly contributions approach. It does not, however, address all of them. The most notable issue is that family carers are still required to have at least 520 paid contributions, and even for those who have 520 paid contributions, their pension entitlement, while it may increase, will still not increase to the maximum level. For this reason, in our submission to the pensions commission we called for a dedicated pension for long-term family carers to ensure they all receive a full pension entitlement equivalent to the maximum contributory State pension. In its report the Commission on Pensions made three recommendations on long-term carers. The first is that long-term carers, that is, those who have been caring for more than 20 years, should be given access to a contributory State pension by having retrospective contributions paid for them by the Exchequer for any gaps in their contribution records due to caregiving. The second recommendation was that those contributions be exclusively for contributory State pension purposes and recognised as paid contributions for the purposes of such caregivers qualifying for the contributory State pension and calculating their entitlement. This would abolish the issue arising from the requirement to have 520 contributions. Finally, but importantly, the commission recommended the establishment of a family carer register because it recognised the immense challenge in identifying who long-term family carers are. While the pensions commission's approach is to subsume long-term carers into the interim TCA system rather than creating a dedicated carer's pension, as we had originally sought, this is not necessarily an issue for Family Carers Ireland as the three recommendations, if fully adopted, would address many of the legacy issues associated with carers' access to the State pension.

We understand that the commission's report will be referred to the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and investment for consideration, with a view to bringing a recommended response and implementation plan to the Government by the end of March 2022. We believe that in order for the programme for Government commitment to address the pension anomaly affecting family carers to be achieved, it is necessary that all recommendations relating to family carers be approved and urgently implemented.

I thank the committee for its time. I am happy to take any questions members may have.