Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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473.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if, in the case of a person (details supplied), she will instruct her Department to assess an application based on hours worked prior to September 2022 when working hours were reduced due to their son’s care needs; and if she will update the carer’s benefit assessment to allow for secondary school teachers who are job sharing and are therefore working half of a secondary school teacher’s hours [25237/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Carer's Benefit (CARB) is a payment made to insured people who leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a child or an adult in need of full-time care and attention.

To qualify, the Carer must satisfy PRSI conditions; employment conditions; show that they are providing full-time care and attention; and must show that the care recipient requires full-time care and attention.

Under the provisions of the legislation, to be eligible to claim CARB, a person must have been in remunerative full time employment for a minimum of 16 hours in the week, or 32 hours in the fortnight, for eight weeks out of the previous 26 week period immediately prior to the first day on which a claim is made.

I am satisfied that the CARB scheme as it currently operates is an effective payment for those carers who need to reduce their hours or leave the workforce for a short period. Any changes to the eligibility conditions such as that outlined by the Deputy would have cost implications and could only be considered in an overall budgetary and policy context.

Where a person is unable to satisfy the conditions of the CARB payment they may make an application for Carer’s Allowance (CA).

The person concerned applied for CARB on 28 April 2023 for the period covering the 28 August 2023 to 31 May 2024. The prescribed time for making an application for CARB is from 8 weeks before and up to 8 weeks after the day the person intends to leave or reduce their working hours of employment.

The claim was withdrawn as the person concerned had applied in advance of the eight week prescribed timeframe and correspondence regarding this issued to the person concerned on 5 May 2023. This correspondence also advised the person concerned should make their application for CARB on or after the 3 July 2023.

Another application was received on 20 July 2023 and the claim was disallowed as the person did not meet the employment conditions to qualify for CARB. A person must have been employed in remunerative employment for not less than 16 hours per week/32 hours per fortnight and for at least 8 weeks, whether consecutive or not, in the 26 week period prior to commencing caring/leaving employment to provide full time care.

The person concerned was notified on 16 August 2023 of this decision, the reasons for it and of the right of review and appeal. This letter also advised the person concerned of their right to apply for CA.

A request for a review was received on 25 August 2023 with supplementary information. Following this review, the original decision remained unchanged, and a decision letter issued to this effect on 28 August 2023.

A request to appeal the decision was received directly by the Appeals office. The person concerned was notified on 12 March 2024 that the appeal was disallowed, and the original decision was upheld.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.