Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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418. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when the means test is scheduled to be scrapped for the carer’s allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4718/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The main income supports to carers provided by the Department of Social Protection 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 €1.9 billion in 2025.

The Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. There are currently 98,311 people in receipt of Carer's Allowance and expenditure in 2025 is estimated to be over €1.24 billion.

The primary objective of the Carer’s Allowance 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 or people in respect of whom care is being provided. It is important to note that the Carer’s Allowance is not intended to be a compensatory payment for the full value of earnings foregone nor is it a payment by the State for the provision of care.

There have been a number of significant improvements made to the means test for Carer's Allowance in recent years. As part of Budget 2025, the weekly income disregard will increase from €450 to €625 for a single person, and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse/partner. This amounts to cumulative increases to the disregards of €292.50 and €585.00 respectively since June 2022.

Notwithstanding these improvements an Interdepartmental Working Group with the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was established last year to examine and review the system of means testing for carer payments. The Group is chaired by my department and I expect the report on its findings in the coming weeks.

The Government is very aware of the key role that family carers play in Irish society and the challenges they face. The Programme for Government commits to significantly increasing the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government.

I trust that this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.