Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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357. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a person (details supplied) who is a single parent working 15 hours a week during the school term is entitled to the full carer’s allowance to care for their child who has autism after nine years on half carer’s allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34284/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care.

If a person is in receipt of another social welfare payment in their own right (other than unemployment payments or supplementary welfare allowance) or being claimed as a qualified adult on their spouse/partner's payment, a half-rate carer's allowance can be paid too as long as all the normal conditions for receipt of CA are satisfied.

The person concerned is in receipt of one parent family payment. As a result, CA is being paid to her at half-rate.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.