Ms Paula Maher:

We have a number of family carers who are in receipt of carer's allowance for a child or parent and they work outside the home for 18.5 hours per week as carers. For them it is important to be able to work and to have that outlet. The difficulty is that if they work even half an hour longer than 18.5 hours, they get punished quite significantly. I have one carer in mind who is a family carer for her young child. She works 18.5 hours per week and the main client she looks after for us is a young gentleman with a significant disability. He is paraplegic from the neck down and looking after him requires a certain skill set which this lady has. On a few occasions, in order to provide cover when we did not have enough carers to look after this gentleman due to sick leave, this lady worked very slightly longer than the 18.5 hours. When she was reviewed, for any week when she had worked even half an hour longer than the threshold, her entire carer's allowance for the week was deducted. As a result, that lady cannot afford to bring her children on holidays this year. She is paying it back as we speak. The effect is twofold. First, this is a significant hardship for her financially, but it is also a hardship for the likes of the client I am speaking about. In order to provide real consistency for people who have significant needs there has to be some flexibility. Increasing the threshold slightly would help in some way towards providing consistency for vulnerable people.