John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 440: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the position regarding the issue on the branch managers' association retirement gratuity. [6956/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department currently has 66 social welfare branch offices at various locations throughout the country. Each branch office is operated and managed by a branch manager who is required to act as an agent for the Department in the area served by the office. Subject to having completed seven years satisfactory service a branch manager who retires on age, that is, at 60 or over, on health grounds, following the abolition of the office or who dies in service may be paid a retirement gratuity. The branch managers' association is seeking changes in the rules governing the payment of retirement gratuities to its members. The changes being sought are under consideration in the context of discussions with the association and my Department will be in touch with the association again shortly.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 441: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will address the apparent anomaly whereby a person in receipt of a carer's allowance who is caring for a spouse in receipt of a blind person's pension cannot avail of the ten hours per week in paid employment as all but the first €7.60 of the carer's income from employment will be deducted from the blind person's pension; if other social assistance payments are affected in this way; if, notwithstanding improved arrangements due in September 2006, his views on introducing an income disregard similar to that operating for the carer's allowance in order that carer's in these circumstances are not discouraged the respite and dignity of paid employment. [7027/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain older people or people with a disability with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. Provision was made in the budget to increase the income disregard on the carer's allowance means test to €580 per week for a couple from April 2006. This will ensure that a couple with no dependent children can have income of up to €32,625 per annum and still receive the maximum rate of carer's allowance. The same couple will be able to earn up to €52,200 and receive the minimum rate of carer's allowance as well as free travel, the household benefits package and the respite care grant.

In the recent budget, provision was also made to increase the amount of the respite care grant from €1,000 to €1,200 from June 2006, and to increase in the number of hours a carer can work from ten hours to 15 hours per week from April 2006. In the case of the means test for the blind pension, the couple's combined total means, including earnings from employment, are initially established and half of the total means are assessed in respect of entitlement to a blind pension. Where the means so calculated are less than €7.60 per week, a blind pension is payable at the maximum rate and a reduced rate pension is payable where means are in excess of €7.60 per week and below €171.70. Therefore, in the particular case at issue, half, as distinct from all, of the income of the carer would be assessed for the purposes of determining the entitlement of the other spouse to a blind pension, in the event that the carer takes up employment.

There are currently two social welfare payments made to people with disabilities, namely, disability allowance and blind pension. Both are payable where an individual's employment capacity is substantially restricted as a result of their disability but blind pension is directed towards people with one specific disability. In the case of the means test for disability allowance, €88.88 per week, increasing to €100 per week from September, of a spouse's earnings is disregarded and the payment is reduced on a tapered basis where earnings are in excess of this figure. Accordingly, in the event of the carer in this particular case taking up employment, it may be more advantageous for the blind pensioner to claim disability allowance from my Department.

In this context, it should be noted that the working group on the review of illness and disability payment schemes examined the current duplicated welfare provision arrangements for persons with disabilities. The group, in its examination of the two schemes in the treatment of couples, noted, inter alia, that where a spouse has earnings from employment, couples are generally treated more favourably under the disability allowance means test. The group, in its report published in 2004, recommended that there should be one single means-tested scheme for persons with disabilities, regardless of the nature of their disabilities. In this context, the blind pension scheme should be merged into an adapted disability allowance scheme, subject to appropriate arrangements being put in place to preserve the existing entitlements of persons in receipt of blind pension.

By any standards, the enhancements introduced over the last two budgets for carers have been exceptional while unprecedented levels of increases have been made to personal weekly rates of payment for all social welfare recipients. Further modernization and improvements will be a matter for consideration in the context of the budget for 2007 and in the light of available resources. In this context, the future development of the blind pension and disability allowance schemes will have regard to the recommendations of the working group on the review of illness and disability payment schemes.