Ms Clare Duffy:

Ms Cox and I were lucky enough to present to this committee this time last year specifically on a pensions solution for long-term carers. She and I were also lucky enough to have an audience with the Pensions Commission early last year. The commission's report last October took on board all our proposals pretty much word for word. If that is accepted by the Minister, as we hope it will be, it will really address that long-standing pension anomaly that has affected so many family carers, particularly, but not only, farming families. Hopefully, in the coming weeks we will hear an announcement to address that.

The Pensions Commission has proposed that for anyone who is a lifetime carer, which is defined as someone who has cared for more than 20 years - normally parents of children - those 20 years of caregiving will be recognised as if they have been in the workforce and they will have contributions paid in respect of that. That should give them a full complement that would warrant them getting the contributory State pension at its maximum level.