Marie Moloney (Labour)
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I wish to raise one issue. I have a number of carers who have a child with a disability. One in particular has a child with leukaemia but the child is attending school. The carer decided to go back to college to retrain while the child was at school, but because her hours exceed 15, she loses the carer's allowance. As the child is in school and does not need to be cared for, she has time to retrain. That is an issue that the witnesses and the committee could take up. While their hours exceed 15, such people are retraining for future life when they will no longer be a carer.

I supported raising the age for domiciliary care allowance from 16 to 18 years when it was mooted. However, I recognise that as soon as we do that, there will be huge objections from the Opposition parties saying that we are attacking the vulnerable again. The reason I supported the proposal is that I know many children who were in receipt of domiciliary care allowance but when they turned 16 found it very difficult to get the disability allowance. When they were younger, they needed more care by a parent, but they became more independent as they approached the age of 16. However, they lose the disability allowance and the carer, who cared for the child, loses the carer's allowance because the child is no longer in receipt of the required payment. If the age limit for receipt of domiciliary care allowance was raised to 18 years, there would be continuity until they became young adults. However, I think there would be huge opposition to that proposal.