Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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490. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if any financial supports are available from her Department to those who are considered young carers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42614/24]

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

Both the Carer’s Benefit and the Carer’s Support Grant are available to young carers in need of financial support.

Carer's Benefit is a non-means tested payment made to insured people, aged 16 and over, who may be required to leave the workforce, or reduce their working hours, to care for someone in need of full-time care and attention. A person may be eligible for Carer's Benefit if they have sufficient PRSI contributions. The payment is payable for a period of 2 years (104 weeks) for each care recipient and may be claimed over separate periods up to a total of 2 years (104 weeks).

While Carer’s Benefit is not a means-tested payment, it is subject to an earnings limit. The earnings limit is in line with the income disregard (single) for the Carer's Allowance payment. The current earnings limit is €450 per week (after tax). As part of Budget 2025, Carer’s Benefit will be extended to the self-employed for the first time and the earnings limit will be increased from €450 to €625, after tax.

As part of Budget 2025, a €12 increase in the weekly rate of Carer’s Benefit will take effect from January. This is the fourth successive rise in weekly welfare rates under this Government. Rates have increased by €41.00 over the last 4 years.

The Carer’s Support Grant is a payment for all carers aged 16 and over, even those not in receipt of a carer's payment from my department. It can be claimed by carers regardless of their means or social insurance contributions. It is paid in respect of each care recipient. Over 132,000 carers received the grant this June at a cost of €275 million.

As part of Budget 2025, the Carer’s Support Grant will increase by a further €150 to €2,000, bringing it to its highest ever rate.

Over the last number of Budgets, there have been a suite of once-off lump sum and double payments to assist carers with the cost of living and rising bills. More recently as part of Budget 2025, I made the following changes that will directly benefit carers, including young carers:

• A €400 cost of living lump sum payment for carers eligible for the Carer’s Support Grant will be paid in November.
• In October a cost of living bonus will be paid to most people who get a long term weekly social welfare payment including carers.
• A Christmas Bonus will be paid to over 1.3 million long term welfare recipients including carers.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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491. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the full-year cost of raising the 18.5-hour ceiling for carer’s allowance recipients who wish to pursue training or education while providing full-time care to 20 hours and 25 hours, respectively; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42615/24]

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 2024 is expected to exceed €1.7 billion.

The Carer’s Allowance is a means tested social assistance income support paid 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. There are currently 97,366 people in receipt of this payment.

A primary qualifying condition for the carer income supports provided, is that the applicant provides full-time care and attention to a person in need of such a level of 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 time spent providing care must not be less than 35 hours per week.

While carer support payments are premised on the provision of full-time care and attention by the carer, they also provide flexibility in terms of allowing carers to engage in work, training or education up to 18.5 hours per week. During this time, adequate provision must be made for the care of the relevant person.

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.

The main cost elements of a proposal to increase the threshold would arise from new claimants who are not currently eligible because of the 18.5 hours condition. It is not known to the Department the number of people engaged in education or training who could become eligible as a consequence of increasing the hours threshold, as outlined by the Deputy, and therefore an estimate of the costs cannot be provided.

I believe that the 18.5-hour limitation represents a reasonable balance between meeting the requirement for providing full-time care for the care recipient and the needs of the carer to engage in education, training or employment, thereby supporting a carer’s continued attachment to the workforce and broader social inclusion. In effect, a carer can engage in these activities for half of a full-time working week.

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

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.