Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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484. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide the full-year cost of increasing the income disregards for single and couples for carer’s allowance by €25, €50, €75, €100, €125, €150, €175, €200, €225, €250, €275, €300, €325, €350, €375, €400, €425, €450, €475 and €500, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42608/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Income disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, their income from work to the level of the income disregard, is not assessed in the means test.

As part of Budget 2025, I further increased the Carer's Allowance disregard to €625 for a single person, and €1,250 for carers with a spouse/partner, to commence in July 2025. A detailed costing was undertaken and the estimated the full year cost to increase the income disregard for Carer's Allowance to €625 for a single person and €1,250 per couple is €23.6 million.

The Department does not currently have the available data and modelling capacity to provide a detailed estimate for the full year cost of increasing the disregards for single people and couples by €25, €50, €75, €100, €125, €150, €175, €200, €225, €250, €275, €300, €325, €350, €375, €400, €425, €450, €475 and €500.

A very high-level estimate is that the cost of increasing disregards so that the disregard level is between €500 and €750 for single people and €1,000 and €1,400 for couples would be in the region of €9 million and €35 million, respectively, in a full year.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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485. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide the full-year cost of increasing the carer’s support grant by €100, €200, €300, €400, €500, €600, €700, €800, €900, €1000, €1500 and €2000, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42609/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated full year cost of increasing the Carer’s Support Grant, by €100, €200 €300, €400, €500, €600. €700, €800, €900, €1,000, €1,500 and €2,000 is as follows

The costs shown above are on a full year basis and are based on the estimated number of recipients. 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 for 2025.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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486. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to detail the full-year cost of increasing all social welfare payments by €5, €7, €10, €12, €15, €20, €25, €30, €40 and €50, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42610/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated full year cost of increasing all social welfare payments by €5, €7, €10, €12, €15, €20, €25, €30, €40 and €50, in tabular form is as follows:

The costs shown above are on a full year basis and are based on the estimated number of recipients. 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 for 2025.

It should also be noted that these costings include proportionate increases for qualified adults and for those on reduced rates of payment, where relevant.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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487. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide the full-year cost of increasing the domiciliary care allowance by €10, €15, €20, €25, €30, €35, €40, €45 and €50, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42611/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated full year cost of increasing the Domiciliary Care Allowance by €10, €15, €20, €25, €30, €35, €40, €45, and €50 are as follows

The costs shown above are on a full year basis and are based on the estimated number of recipients. 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 for 2025.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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488. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the full-year cost of making the disability support payment of €400 a permanent annual payment; to provide the full-year cost of increasing it in increments of €100 up to €2000, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42612/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am committed to improving outcomes for people with a disability. As a result, I announced an extensive range of cost of living measures to support people with disabilities in Budget 2025. These included:

• October 2024 cost of living bonus for people in receipt of a long term weekly social welfare payment.
• €400 cost of living lump sum payment for people in receipt of Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension and Blind Pension to be paid in November 2024.
• €300 cost of living lump sum payment to all households getting Fuel Allowance to be paid in November 2024.
• €200 cost of living lump sum payment to people who are getting a Living Alone Increase to be paid in November 2024.
• €100 cost of living lump sum payment for people getting a Child Support Payment (previously known as Increase for a Qualified Child) to be paid for each qualified child in November 2024.
• Christmas bonus to all persons in receipt of a long-term disability payment to be paid in December 2024.
• €12 increase in the maximum personal rate of weekly disability payments from January 2025. There will be proportionate increases for people on a reduced rate.
• Weekly rates of Child Support Payment (previously known as Increase for a Qualified Child) will increase by €8 to €62 for those aged 12 and over, and by €4 to €50 for under 12s in January 2025
• €20 increase a month in Domiciliary Care Allowance from January 2025.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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489. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the full-year cost of giving the fuel allowance to every household that qualifies for the household benefits package; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42613/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €382 million in 2024. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. Only one allowance is paid per household.

If the measure outlined by the Deputy was introduced in 2025, it is estimated that there will be an average of 540,000 recipients of the Household Benefits Package. As 48% of those in receipt of the Household Benefits Package also receive the Fuel Allowance payment, it is estimated that this measure will result in an additional 280,800 households qualifying for the Fuel Allowance payment. Based on a yearly rate of Fuel Allowance of €924, the estimated yearly cost of the measure is €259.5 million.

The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the Fuel Allowance payment, a person must satisfy all the qualifying criteria including the household composition criteria. This ensures that the Fuel Allowance payment goes to those who are more vulnerable to fuel poverty, including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods and who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own.

A change in the qualifying criteria such as automatically awarding the Fuel Allowance payment to all those in receipt of the Household Benefits Package would change the targeted nature of the scheme and would have to be considered in a wider budgetary and policy context.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.