John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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46. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the criteria in place for those applying for carer's allowance; if any reviews of those criteria have taken place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3060/17]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister outline the eligibility criteria for the carer's allowance and indicate when the last review of those criteria took place?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government acknowledges the crucial role family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the programme for Government and the national carers strategy. Carer's allowance is a means-tested payment, made to people who are providing full-time care and attention to elderly people or people with disabilities and whose income falls below certain limits.

The principal conditions for receipt of the allowance are that full-time care and attention is required and being provided and that the means test which applies is satisfied. The means test is one of the least onerous in the social protection system. For a single person, €332.50 of gross weekly income is disregarded in the calculation of means. The equivalent for someone who is married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting is €665 of combined gross weekly income. A married couple with two children could have weekly earnings of €1,135 net of PRSI, union and superannuation contributions and still qualify for the lowest rate of carer's allowance. In other words, a family earning €59,000 per annum would meet the eligibility criteria.

Considerable improvements have been introduced for carers in recent years. In budget 2016, the carer's support grant, which is payable without a means test, was increased to €1,700. Other measures benefitting carers include extending the period when carer's allowance can be paid following the death of a care recipient from six to 12 weeks. In addition to the Christmas bonus and the €5 increase in the weekly rate, budget 2017 introduced a measure that extends payment of carer's allowance for 12 weeks where the care recipient enters permanent residential care. Carer's benefit is available to employees who have to take time off to care full time. It can be paid for up to three years on foot of PRSI contributions and is not means tested.

There are no plans for a formal review of the qualification criteria for carer's allowance. Instead, specific measures will be considered as part of the budgetary process in line with the commitments in the programme for Government.

In order to ascertain and assess priorities within the sector, my Department actively engages with carers' representative groups and hosts an annual carers forum.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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At a committee meeting last December, the Minister indicated that in the first half of 2016, there was a 19% increase in applications for carer's allowance compared with the same period in the previous year. I asked at that meeting what percentage of those applications were refused and I am still awaiting a formal response. Will the Minister provide it now? Statistics showing a high refusal rate for carer's allowance applications are reflected in the outcome of such appeals at the Social Welfare Tribunal. Indeed, compared with other social welfare payments, the refusal rate for carer's allowance is notably much higher.

Clearly, there are more rigid criteria at play here and I need the Minister to outline that. How much discretion is given to the officials when making decisions on applications? Is the Minister genuinely concerned about the high refusal rates?

Is the Minister concerned that genuine cases may be being turned down? Such cases have been brought to my attention and to the Minister's attention. Is the Minister concerned about genuine cases that are being refused?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Of course I am concerned about any genuine cases being refused. That is why applicants can request a review and it is why they can also go to the appeals office. Applicants do go to the appeals office and have the decision changed.

What is particularly different about the appeals system in Ireland relative to that in other countries is we allow applicants to introduce new information on appeal which is not the norm in other jurisdictions. Applicants have the opportunity to apply, get a review and appeal. Therefore, there are adequate checks and balances in place to ensure genuine cases are looked after.

Obviously, a person must qualify under the means test. I mentioned to the Deputy earlier that the means test is the least onerous in the social protection system. A person qualifies with an income of nearly €60,000. If that person has been paying PRSI, he or she can qualify for carer's benefit without any means test at all, and regardless of whether he or she paid PRSI, that person can qualify for the carer's support grant without any means test.

The second test, beyond the means test, is whether the person requires full-time care and attention, and that is largely a medical assessment. It requires that the person is so incapacitated as to require continuous supervision to avoid a danger to himself or herself, or continuous supervision and frequent assistance throughout the day in connection with normal bodily functions, and that he or she is so incapacitated as to be likely to require full-time care and attention for a period of at least 12 months.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister outlined some of the financial criteria. I am glad he outlined some of the medical criteria that are needed. Last week I was made aware of a man who applied for carer's allowance to look after his wife. There was a letter of refusal from the Department and this has been sent to the Minister. The letter stated his wife, whom he was seeking to become a carer for, was not ill enough. His wife is terminally ill with cancer. She has been fighting cancer for ten years. Her husband, who is a full-time carer, applied for the carer's allowance and was turned down on the basis that she was not ill enough. That highlights to me, if anything ever did, there is a problem with the criteria being applied here. I ask the Minister again to examine the criteria that are applied in applications for carer's allowance.

The Minister indicated a 19% increase in applications being submitted. There is a considerable delay in assessing those applications and in appeals being turned around. There are significant problems, but especially around the criteria. I ask the Minister to re-examine the criteria. That is a graphic case and there are many other genuine cases. The Minister stated he was concerned that genuine cases are being turned down. That is one example of many.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I cannot comment on an individual case of which I have no information or prior details, but I would encourage anyone who feels that he or she was assessed unfairly to seek a review or to appeal. That is why we have that system in place.

The Deputy mentioned the delays in processing applications for carer's allowance. That is something on which I placed a strong focus in recent months and I visited the staff in Longford to talk to them about it. We have seen a significant reduction in the average carer's allowance application processing time from 22 weeks at the end of May shortly after I took up office to 11 weeks at the end of December, and the carer's benefit application processing time has now been reduced to eight weeks. We have put additional resources into those assessments in Longford and, as a result, the waiting times for those who have applied for carer's allowance have halved.