Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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1002. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider increasing the maximum hours those in receipt of carer's allowance are allowed to work each week; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37865/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government acknowledges the valuable role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy.

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 expected to amount to almost €1.6 billion.

The Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. Carer’s Allowance is a means tested social assistance payment awarded to those carers who are caring for certain people who require full-time care and attention. The means test is used to target the support to those most in need.

The primary objective of the payment is to provide an income support to carers whose earning capacity is substantially reduced as a consequence of their caring responsibilities and in so doing to support the ongoing care of the person in respect of whom care is being provided.

A primary qualifying condition for the carer income supports provided by my department 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 will be 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.

There have been a number of significant improvements to the Carer’s Allowance scheme regarding the relaxation of the full-time care and attention requirement to enable carers to engage in education, training or work.

From August 1999, the full-time care and attention requirements were relaxed to introduce some flexibility and allow carers to work for up to 10 hours per week. As of June 2006, this was increased from 10 to 15 hours per week. In Budget 2020, this was further increased from 15 to 18.5 hours per week. This measure was prioritised in response to carers who had stated that they found the previous number of 15 hours to be too restrictive.

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.

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. Any proposals for further changes to this condition would need to maintain this balance and would have to be considered in a budgetary context.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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1003. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider increasing the maximum weekly income allowances for the means test in relation to carer's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37866/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government acknowledges the important role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy.

The key role of my department is to provide income supports where an income need may arise due to unemployment, illness/disability or caring responsibilities. The payments provided are an income support to people who cannot earn, or can only earn a limited income, and who have no other means or resources to rely upon.

The main income supports to carers provided by my department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Spending in 2023 is expected to amount to almost €1.6 billion on these payments.

The two principal conditions for receipt of Carer’s Allowance are that full time care and attention is required and provided, and that a means test is satisfied. The application of the means-test not only ensures that the recipient has an income need but also that scarce resources are targeted to those with the greatest need.

As part of Budget 2022, I introduced significant improvements to the means test for Carer's Allowance. These were the first changes to the means test in 14 years:

• For carers who work, the weekly income disregard was increased from €332.50 to €350 for a single person, and from €665 to €750 for carers with a spouse/partner.
• The capital and savings disregard for the Carer’s Allowance means assessment was increased from €20,000 to €50,000, aligning it with the capital means test for Disability Allowance.

In addition to Carer's Allowance, my department also provides a non-means tested payment to those carers who have to leave the workforce or reduce their hours in the form of Carer’s Benefit. For those providing ongoing care and attention for a child aged under 16 with a severe disability, Domiciliary Care Allowance is available and is also not means-tested. Furthermore, the annual Carer's Support Grant - which I increased to its highest-ever rate of €1,850 - is also available to carers who are not on a social welfare payment.

Notwithstanding the increased level of support already in place for carers, I have asked my department to keep these measures under review as part of the annual budgetary process.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.