Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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978. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will address a matter (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37270/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on all these payments to carers in 2023 is estimated at almost €1.6 billion.

A primary qualifying condition for the all the carer income supports, including the Carer's Support Grant, is that the applicant provides full-time care and attention to a person in need of such care. The person being cared for must be so incapacitated as to require full-time care and attention and be likely to require this full-time care and attention for at least 12 months.

The minimum hours condition for which a carer can be regarded as providing full-time care and attention is set out in legislation. A carer is regarded as providing full-time care and attention to a relevant person, where the number of hours providing such care is not less than 35 hours in a period of 7 consecutive days, and care is provided on any 5 days, whether consecutive or not, within a period of 7 consecutive days.

However, in order to support a carer’s continued attachment to the workforce and to support broader social inclusion, carers may engage in some limited employment, education or training, while still being regarded as being in a position to provide full-time care and continue to receive their full payment. During this time of employment, education or training, adequate provision must be made for the care of the relevant person. Budget 2020 changed the rules so that those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit and the Carer’s Support Grant could increase the number of hours they work, study or attend a training course from 15 to 18.5 hours. This measure was prioritised in response to the carers who expressed that they found 15 hours to be too restrictive, not only for work but for education and training purposes. I consider the limit of 18.5 hours to represent a reasonable balance between meeting the care recipient's requirement for full-time care and the carer's need to maintain contact with the workforce.

The annual Carer’s Support Grant is available to all carers providing full-time care to an older person or a person with a disability, regardless of their means or social insurance contributions. As part of Budget Measures 2021, the rate of the grant was increased by €150 to €1,850. This is the highest rate since its introduction and this grant is not available for any other group. The Carer's Support Grant is automatically paid to people in receipt of Carer's Allowance, Carer’s Benefit and Domiciliary Care allowance in June of each year. Other people who are not in receipt of a social welfare payment but who are providing full time care and attention are also eligible and can apply for a ‘standalone’ grant.

Both the full-time care and attention requirement and the 18.5-hour limitation are contained in the respective legislative provisions of the Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit and Carer’s Support Grant schemes. In this regard there is no flexibility to assess applications based on medical need on a case by case basis, as suggested by the Deputy.

Furthermore, removal of the full-time care requirement for the Carer’s Support Grant would change the nature of the scheme from a targeted support for those providing full-time care and would result in a significant additional cost. By way of example, Census 2022 identified over 299,000 people providing regular unpaid personal help or support to a family member, neighbour or friend with a long-term illness, health issue or an issue related to old age or disability. The Census figure includes all unpaid carers providing care from 1 hour a week and upwards. It is worth noting that some 40,864 carers provide care of between 15 and 28 hours per week.

Any proposals for further changes to the full-time care condition and or the 18.5 hour limitation as it pertains to the Carer's Support Grant would have to be considered in the context of the other carer income supports provided by my department and in an overall budgetary context.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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979. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of the guardians payment annually; and the number of payments for the past five years. [37281/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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If you are taking care of a child who is an orphan, you may get a social welfare payment of €203 a week. It is not necessary to be a legally appointed guardian. You may get this payment if the child lives with you and you are responsible for their care. The payment is for the benefit of the child.

If either parent, or step-parent, had worked at any time and paid social insurance (PRSI) for 26 weeks, the child is entitled to the Guardian’s Payment (Contributory). Guardian’s Payment (Non-Contributory) is a non-contributory payment for a child who is not entitled to the contributory payment. The means test for this is based on the child’s means. Payment is made to the child’s guardian until the child turns 18 or, if the child is in full-time education, until they turn 22.

The expenditure for Guardian's Payment (Contributory) and Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory) over the last 5 years is shown in table 1, and the number of payments made is shown in table 2. Note that between March 2020 and November 2020 weekly payments were changed to a fortnightly schedule on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Table 1: Expenditure on Guardian's Payment (Contributory) and Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory) (€million), by year

Table 2: Number of Guardian's Payment (Contributory) and Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory) payments, by year

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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980. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost to increase the guardians payment to €350 weekly, monthly and annually. [37282/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Guardians payment is paid on a weekly basis. The estimated cost to increase Guardians payment to €350 per week on an annual basis is €13.1m. This estimate includes costs for both Guardians payment Contributory and Non-contributory.

It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients.