Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the plans he has to improve the income disregard available to claimants on jobseekers allowance to bring it in line with the proposals for the parental payment contained in Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents. [5235/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government Discussion Paper on Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents put forward a proposal to introduce a new scheme, Parental Allowance, for all low income families with young children. It was envisaged that those in receipt of Parental Allowance would be able to earn up to €120 per week without affecting their payment and that 40% of the remainder would be assessed as means. It was also proposed that the entitlement to the new payment would continue up to an upper earnings threshold of €400 per week.

Prior to September 2007, the earnings disregards which applied to Jobseeker's Allowance were as follows:

Where a person had one or more qualified child dependant(s) and was working part of the week while claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, means were assessed as 60% of the average net weekly earnings.

Where a person had no qualified child dependants, €12.70 earnings for each day worked was disregarded from the average net weekly earnings, and 60% of the balance assessed against the weekly rate of Jobseeker's Allowance.

With effect from the end of September 2007, €20 earnings for each day worked, up to a maximum of €60 per week, are disregarded from the average net weekly earnings. These new arrangements replaced the previous arrangements including the distinction between persons with and without qualified children. There is no upper income threshold for entitlement. As can be seen, as a result of these changes, the position of all part-time workers in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance was significantly enhanced. Any further improvement in the means testing arrangements for Jobseeker's Allowance would have to be considered in a Budgetary context.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 131: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when he will address the anomalous position of carers over 66 years who are caring for more than one person but who receive a maximum of only approximately €20 more than a person caring for just one person who qualifies for an old age pension and half-rate carer's allowance. [5242/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Supporting and recognising carers in our society is, and has been, a priority of the Government since 1997. Over that period, weekly payment rates to carers have greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and new schemes such as carer's benefit and the respite care grant have been introduced and extended. Rates of carer's allowance for those caring for one person have been increased to €214 per week for those aged under 66 and to €232 per week for those aged over 66 since January 2008. Where people are caring for more than one person they receive a higher rate of payment. People aged under 66 who are eligible for the maximum rate of carer's allowance and who are caring for more than one person receive €321 per week. People aged 66 or over in that situation receive €348 per week.

The primary objective of the social welfare system is to provide income support. As a general rule only one weekly social welfare payment is payable to an individual. Persons qualifying for two social welfare payments receive the higher payment to which they are entitled. This had been a cause of particular concern to people in receipt of a social welfare payment when they became carers. Budget 2007 provided for a fundamental reform of the social welfare system for carers in this regard. Under new arrangements which came into effect in September 2007, people in receipt of certain social welfare payments other than carer's allowance or benefit who are providing someone with full time care and attention can now retain their main payment and receive another payment, depending on their means, the maximum of which is equivalent to a half rate carer's allowance. Similarly, people currently in receipt of carer's allowance who may have an underlying eligibility for another social welfare payment, such as state pension (non-contributory) can switch to that other payment and have their personal rate of carer's allowance reduced accordingly. These new arrangements apply to almost all weekly social welfare payments and to people in receipt of qualified adult allowances. To date, almost 7,000 carers have benefited from these new arrangements.

In June 2005, the respite care grant was extended to all people providing full time care and attention regardless of their means or social insurance contributions. Since then the grant has also been paid in respect of each care recipient. Budget 2007 increased the level of the grant by €300 from €1,200 to €1,500 per year in respect of each care recipient. From June 2008 the grant will be increased to €1,700 in respect of each care recipient. I will keep the supports for carers from my Department under review in order to continue to improve the schemes and ensure commitments on income support are delivered.