Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The system of social assistance supports administered by my Department, with the exception of Ccildrens' allowance, provide payments based on income need. That is just how it has always been. That is not to say that should be applicable to people who are caring and that is why we need to have a proper conversation in the context of cross-party support and recognition of the valuable work done by carers. However, the premise that the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is helping people who have an income deficit. The means test plays a critical role in determining whether an income need arises as a consequence of a particular contingency such as disability, unemployment or caring.  This ensures that the recipient has a verifiable income need and that resources are targeted to those who need them most.  These are increasing significantly and cannot continue to grow as they are year-on-year, which will lead to a financing problem. We must target payments to those who are most in need.

By its nature, the means test takes account of the income a person or couple has in terms of cash, property, other than the family home, and capital.  It does not take account of a person’s expenditure. In line with most social assistance payments, deductions permitted for carer's allowance include PRSI, union dues, superannuation or pension contributions and travel expenses.  Uniquely in the system, an income disregard of €332.50 per week or €665 for a couple applies to carer's allowance. That is much higher than any other means tests or disregards across the system.

Including costs such as housing and childcare would have significant budgetary implications and would give rise to inconsistencies in how means tests are applied across schemes.  We were just not in a position to do it this year.

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