Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Government is not opposing the motion. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the important issue of carer supports provided by the Department of Social Protection, in particular, the carer's allowance payment. I thank the Deputies for bringing forward the motion.

On a personal level, I know that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has always sought to make sure the interests of carers are front and centre of budget decisions.

This approach has been evidenced again in the most recent budget with an extensive package of measures announced for family carers. This includes once-off lump sum and double payments to assist carers and those they care for, such as the following: the October cost-of-living bonus, which was paid to carers last week; a €400 cost-of-living lump sum payment for carers eligible for the carer’s support grant, which will be paid next week; and a Christmas bonus, which will be paid to over 1.3 million long-term welfare recipients, including carers. As part of budget 2025, the Government has extended the carer’s benefit scheme to the self-employed for the first time. The Government has also increased the carer’s support grant twice during its term and it now stands at €2,000 a year, its highest ever rate.

Significantly, the Government has delivered on the programme for Government commitment to provide a pension solution for long-term carers. This important reform enables long-term carers who have been caring for an incapacitated dependant for 20 years or more to qualify for the contributory State pension. Under the scheme, for the first time, full-time carers can get long-term carer's contributions to cover gaps in their contribution record, which can help them qualify for a pension. Since January 2024, long-term carer's contributions can be awarded to a person who has cared for an incapacitated person for a period of 20 years or more. These contributions are treated the same as paid contributions for the contributory State pension entitlement only, and can be used to fill any gaps in a person's contribution record, including satisfying the minimum 520 paid contributions required for eligibility.

Long-term carer's contributions have been available to individuals who reached State pension age from 1 January 2024 and are also available to those already aged 66 or over prior to that date. In the case of those already over the age of 66, care periods provided for incapacitated dependants up to their 66th birthday are assessed for entitlement to long-term carer's contributions. Such a person can apply for long-term carer's contributions and receive a contributory State pension or an enhanced rate of pension if already in receipt of less than the maximum rate from 1 January 2024, where eligible. As a result, at the end of September, 580 people were awarded the contributory State pension, with a further 199 people receiving an increase in the rate paid.

The main income supports provided by the Department of Social Protection include carer's allowance, carer's benefit, domiciliary care allowance and the carer's support grant. Spending on these payments in 2024 is expected to be in the region of €1.7 billion. Carer’s allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community and some 97,393 people are currently supported by this payment. This year, the expenditure on the carer’s allowance scheme is estimated to be over €1.1 billion. As the Deputies are aware, carer’s allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment awarded to those who are caring for people who need full-time care and attention. A means test is a way of targeting limited resources at those who have the lowest incomes. Means tests are used not just for carer payments but for pensioners, disabled people, lone parents and jobseekers. It is a system that applies across the board, based on supporting households with the lowest means.

In the case of the carer’s allowance payment, as has been made clear on previous occasions, the payment is not and was never intended to be a payment for the provision of care. The Minister for Social Protection has made significant improvements to capital and income disregards for carers that allow many more carers to qualify for carer’s allowance. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was the first Minister in 14 years to increase the disregard for carer’s allowance. The capital and savings disregard for the means assessment was increased from €20,000 to €50,000, which equates to €100,000 for carers who are part of a couple. Since 2021, under this Government, the carer’s allowance income disregards have been increased from €332.50 to €625 for a single person, and from €665 to €1,250 for carers with a partner. The disregards for carer’s allowance are now by far the highest income disregards of any weekly payment in the social welfare system. In the case of a couple, a carer will be able to retain a full-rate payment of €260 per week while having an annual income of just over €69,000 from employment, or retain a half-rate payment of €130 per week while having an annual income from employment of nearly €84,000.

The Minister has established an interdepartmental working group, with the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, to examine and review the system of means tests for carer payments. This group is expected to report on its findings in quarter 4 of this year. The outcome of this work and other work in the Department around means testing generally will help to inform any future decisions regarding changes to social welfare payments, including carer’s allowance.

In addition to significant improvements to the means test for carer’s allowance already outlined, over the last four budgets, the weekly carers' payments, that is, carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit, have increased by €41 per week. As part of budget 2025, the rate of carer’s allowance will increase by €12 to €260 per week for a carer aged under 66 years caring for one person. It is important to put this into context, given the equivalent payment to a carer across the Border in Northern Ireland is currently almost €97 per week. It is also important to point out that the carer’s allowance payment in Northern Ireland is subject to an income limit of approximately €179.95 per week, much lower than our income disregard.

The programme for Government and the economic recovery plan included commitments to consider a pay-related jobseeker's benefit scheme. The Minister for Social Protection recently signed the commencement order confirming that the new jobseeker's pay-related benefit scheme will be available from 31 March 2025. The priority is to launch this scheme and the Government has been clear that this experience should be used to inform future decisions regarding pay-related schemes. As part of the consultation process, the Department of Social Protection sought feedback on applying a pay-related approach in respect of other short-term income supports, for example, parental leave benefits, maternity benefit and illness benefit. It should be noted that the issue of pay-related carer’s benefit was not raised to any significant degree in the consultation. However, I think the same approach applies and we should look at the experience of the jobseeker scheme to inform where we go next.

It is also important to note that the jobseeker’s pay-related benefit approach is being introduced on the basis of increased PRSI rates, as agreed in the programme for Government, because it needs to be funded from the Social Insurance Fund. This is necessary to ensure the sustainability of the fund, including the retention of the pension age at 66 years, as agreed by the Government. Accordingly, it follows that the continued expansion of a pay-related benefit framework to other schemes, such as carer’s benefit, will need detailed analysis, including any potential impact on PRSI rates.

As I said, we are not opposing this motion because it is a debate worth having. I think all of us in the House recognise the valuable contribution that family carers make to our society and we all want to further enhance the supports available to them and, equally as important, the supports available to those they care for. The Government has done a lot to improve carers' payments during its time. While we recognise that more needs to be done, we need to make sure that whatever we do is affordable and sustainable into the future. I again thank the Deputies for raising the matter and I look forward to hearing the various contributions.

See this speech in context