Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she plans to extend eligibility of carer’s benefit to include people who are self-employed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37672/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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 on these payments is expected to amount to over €1.7 billion this year.

Carer's Benefit is available to 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. It is payable for a period of 2 years for each care recipient and may be claimed over separate periods up to a total of 2 years.

Only PRSI contributions paid at classes A, B, C, D, E and H are counted towards Carer's Benefit. Self-employed contributions, paid at class S, do not count. Self-employed workers paying class S contributions are currently covered for most of the benefits available under the social insurance system.

Self-employed people pay contributions to the Social Insurance Fund at a lower rate of 4%. This is 11 percentage points lower than the combined employer and employee contribution of 15.05% made in respect of employed contributors. However, self-employed contributors have access to over 90% of benefits available to employed contributors.

The only benefits that Class S PRSI does not provide access to are carer's benefit, health and safety benefit, illness benefit and occupational injuries benefits.

Where a carer cannot satisfy the PRSI conditions attached to the Carer's Benefit payment, application for the non-means tested payment of Carer's Allowance is available. A self-employed carer may also be eligible for Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carers Support Grant provided they satisfy the criteria for those schemes.

My Department will continue to keep its range of supports under review to ensure that they meet their overall objectives. However, any changes to the current system would need to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context, and in the context of contribution rates for self-employed contributors.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.