Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 442: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will support a matter (details supplied). [32046/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I understand that the Deputy is referring to the capital assessment arrangements for Disability Allowance. For the purposes of Disability Allowance, capital is assessed as follows:

This means that a single person, without other means, can have capital of up to €53,000 and still qualify for the full rate of Disability Allowance. Disability Allowance at a reduced rate is payable up to €111,000.

In Budget 2007, the capital disregard for Disability Allowance purposes was increased by €30,000, from €20,000 to €50,000. The purpose of this measure was to enable people with disabilities to hold this amount of capital without affecting their payment. It was also designed to go some way towards addressing the issue of financial provision for vulnerable people, particularly by parents, by way of bequest. Any further changes to the capital assessment arrangements for Disability Allowance would have to be considered in a Budgetary context.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 443: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to remove the means test for carers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32187/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, 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. Carer's allowance, in line with other social assistance schemes, is means tested. This ensures scarce resources are directed at those in greatest need. The primary objective of the carer's allowance is to provide income support to low income carers. The carer's allowance means test is one of the more flexible tests in terms of the assessment of household incomes. It has been significantly eased over the years, most notably with regard to spouses' earnings.

Increases to the carer's allowance income disregard provided for in Budget 2008 mean that, since April, a single person can have an income of €332.50 per week and a couple can have an income of up to €665 per week and still qualify for the maximum rate of carer's allowance. The previous levels were €320 and €640 per week respectively. This ensures that a couple can have an income in the region of €37,200 per year and still qualify for the maximum rate of carer's allowance as well as the associated free travel, household benefits package and the respite care grant. This increase surpasses the "Towards 2016" commitment to ensuring that those on average earnings can qualify for carer's allowance.

Budget 2007 provided for new arrangements whereby people can receive a maximum payment equivalent to a half rate carers allowance while receiving another social welfare payment, other than jobseeker's benefit or allowance. To date over 13,000 carers have benefited from these arrangements. In June 2006 the number of hours for which a person can engage in employment, self-employment, education or training and still be considered to be providing full time care for the purposes of carer's allowance, carer's benefit and the respite care grant was increased from 10 to 15 hours per week.

From June 2005, the annual respite care grant was extended to all carers who are providing full time care to a person who needs such care, regardless of their income. A carer who is caring for two or more people is entitled to a full grant for each of the care recipients. The rate of the grant increased to €1,700 per year from June 2008.

Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 444: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the plans she has put in place to alleviate distress for self-employed people many of whom find themselves out of work and without the back up of the social welfare system. [31903/08]

John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 459: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will change the conditions of qualification for the invalidity pension whereby a person who qualifies medically and with the correct PRSI contributions but who, on becoming self employed, is not allowed to sign for credits if they become too ill to work and therefore if self employment is their last place of work they will not be allowed to qualify for the invalidity pension even though they meet all the other qualifying criteria; the steps she will take to rectify this situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32129/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 444 and 459 together.

Workers are insured under the Social Welfare Acts as either employed or self-employed contributors. All workers, both employed and self-employed, are obliged to pay PRSI contributions as a percentage of their personal reckonable income. The range of benefits and pensions to which different groups of workers may establish entitlement reflects the rate of contribution payable by them. Self-employed people aged between 16 and 66 years are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 3% and are consequently eligible for a narrower range of benefits than general employees who, together with their employers, pay a total social insurance contribution of 14.05%, excluding levies, under the full-rate PRSI Class A. These contributions provide entitlement to a range of contingency-based payments under various social insurance schemes.

PRSI Class S contributors are entitled to the following payments:

the Widow's or Widower's (Contributory) Pension;

the Guardian's Payment (Contributory);

the State Pension (Contributory);

Maternity Benefit;

Adoptive Benefit; and

the Bereavement Grant.

Self-employed workers are not insured against short-term benefits such as illness and jobseeker's payments — these are only available to persons covered by PRSI Classes A, E, H and P. This reflects the need for coverage for various contingencies, the rate of contributions that self-employed persons pay, the practicalities of administering and controlling access to short-term payments, and the annualised system of contributions that these people enjoy. A system of separate arrangements for employed and self-employed workers within a social insurance context is common in other European social protection systems.

There are no immediate plans to extend cover for short-term benefits to this group of insured workers. Any such measure would have significant financial implications and would have to be considered within a budgetary context. Consideration would also have to be given to an appropriate increase in the rate of the PRSI Class S contribution. Class S contributors who do not qualify for an insurance-based benefit may establish entitlement to assistance-based payments by satisfying certain conditions — including a means test.