Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 349: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the extent to which carers qualify for social insurance credits; his intentions to improve the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26645/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Credited contributions, or 'credits' as they are termed, are intended to protect the entitlements, particularly the pension rights, of employees and other persons participating in the social insurance system when they are ill or unemployed. A person who is providing full time care and attention as a carer is awarded credits on the same basis as if they were out of the workforce due to illness or unemployment.

Under the current statutory provisions governing the award of credited contributions, recipients of the carer's allowance may be awarded credits if they switched to that payment from another credit-bearing payment such as jobseeker's allowance. From April 1999, formal provision was made for the award of credits to claimants of carer's allowance who have left insurable employment to engage in caring duties. People in receipt of carer's benefit or on carer's leave are awarded credits at the same rate as their last paid contribution.

Recipients of carer's allowance, who are not entitled to credits, may be eligible for homemaker's disregards which preserve the carer's entitlement for contributory pension purposes. The homemaker scheme provides that years spent working in the home while caring on a full-time basis for a child up to 12 years of age or an incapacitated person will be disregarded in calculating a person's yearly average number of contributions for State Pension (contributory) purposes. The provisions apply from the contribution year commencing on 6 April 1994 and up to 20 contribution years may be disregarded.

The award of credits is subject to certain conditions. For example, when a person has not paid or credited contributions for a period of two years, they cannot be awarded further credits until a further 26 contributions are paid. In recognition of their caring role, this rule is waived where claimants of carer's allowance were eligible for homemakers disregards immediately prior to claiming carer's allowance.

This, in effect, means that credits will be awarded where a person who has a gap of two years in their paid or credited contributions was eligible for homemakers disregards before claiming carer's allowance. This will protect the position of people who did not give up work to become carers but may have qualified for homemakers disregards due to child-minding duties and who subsequently became carers after a two year period had expired.

From June 2006, the number of hours a person can engage in employment, self employment, education or training outside the home and still be eligible for carer's allowance, carer's benefit and the respite care grant was increased from 10 to 15 hours per week. Where a carer remains in employment, he or she will continue to pay the appropriate social insurance contribution. All aspects of the carer's allowance scheme and supports for carers are kept under review and ways of increasing and expanding services for carers will continue to be examined.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 350: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on offering social insurance credits to all carers providing full-time care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26646/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The social welfare pension rights of those who take time out of the workforce for caring duties are protected by the homemaker's scheme which was introduced in and took effect from 1994. The scheme allows up to 20 years spent caring for children or incapacitated adults to be disregarded when a person's social insurance record is being averaged for pension purposes. However, the scheme will not of itself qualify a person for a pension.

The standard qualifying conditions, which require a person to enter insurance 10 years before pension age, pay a minimum of 260 contributions at the correct rate and achieve a yearly average of at least 10 contributions on their record from the time they enter insurance until they reach pension age, must also be satisfied. The minimum paid contributions will increase to 520 in 2012. These conditions are designed to ensure that those qualifying for pensions have had an adequate and sustained commitment to the social insurance system as well as to uphold the contributory principle that underpins the qualifying conditions for all social insurance payments.

While there are no plans to alter these arrangements in the immediate term, the operation of this scheme is subject to review in the context of the Green Paper on Pensions, with particular regard being paid to the operative date of the scheme and the use of credits for pension purposes rather than the current system of disregards.