Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like other Members, I had the opportunity yesterday to listen to the pre-budget webinar of Family Carers Ireland. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, to the House to debate the issues raised in that webinar as well as the fact that almost half of all carer's allowance applications are refused. It is fair to say that during the pandemic carers have ensured that many people have been able to remain in their homes. They are our unsung heroes and need a helping hand. Too many of them receive little or no support from the State. I have been taken aback by the number of people applying for carer's allowance who are continually being refused a payment. It is a critical support for those caring for relatives, who are saving the State an estimated €10 billion fortune. Every week, I deal with families impacted by the failure of the Government to increase the means test for this essential support.

Figures I have compiled show that nearly half of all applications in the past three years have not been successful. This is a very worrying trend. From 2018 to this year, there were 51,730 applications, but 23,982 of them were refused. According to a departmental report, slightly more than 84,000 people received a carer's allowance payment in 2019. I also looked at the social welfare appeals office. It processed 3,539 carer's allowance cases in 2019, with just over a third or 35% of them allowed.

Even those who manage to get some level of payment do not receive anywhere near enough support. For many years, Family Carers Ireland and other support groups have been calling for a change to the conditions attached to the payment. The income disregard has not budged since 2008. For 12 years, the rate for a single person has remained at €332.50 and that for a couple has remained at €665. There are 355,000 carers in Ireland. One in every ten people is currently involved in caring. According to Family Carers Ireland, that figure is set to rise to one in five by 2030. Carers have also had to deal with the withdrawal of respite, home care, transport, personal assistant hours and residential care during the pandemic, leaving many of them to cope on their own.

The fact that it is so difficult to get support in the form of the carer's allowance needs to be tackled in the forthcoming budget. The programme for Government commits to a guarantee that would include a core basket of services, but unless the means test and income disregard are addressed, too many people will be locked out of these State supports. Family Carers Ireland is calling for the forthcoming budget to include an increase in the means test from €332.50 to €450 for a single person and from €665 to €900 for a couple. The Labour Party supports that proposal. I call on the Government to address the means test for carer's allowance once and for all and to widen access to the payment. The very simple ask from Family Carers Ireland is to increase the income disregard such that a person on the average income can qualify for it. As Jane, a mother and carer for her two sons who rises each morning for another 19-hour shift, stated yesterday, one does what needs to be done.