Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1878. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the projected cost of increasing the working family payment thresholds by €20 or €50; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44039/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The full year cost of increasing the Working Family Payment income thresholds is difficult to estimate with accuracy given the dynamics of the labour market and wage fluctuations. It is also challenging to forecast the number of new claimants who would avail of the payment as a result of the increased threshold.

Based on information currently available to my department, the estimated cost of increasing the thresholds, for all family’s sizes, by €20 and €50 per week is €22m and €55m respectively. It should be noted, the estimate is based on current numbers of recipients only.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1879. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the projected cost of paying child benefit in the month of birth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44040/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The 2024 Annual Statistics Report states that Child Benefit was paid for 46,372 children between the ages of zero and one over the course of 2024. Assuming that a similar number of eligible children were to be born in 2026, and that all children concerned were single births, the estimated cost of paying Child Benefit from the month of birth is in the region of €6.5 million per year, based on current rates of payment.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1880. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of providing job seeker's payments to under-25s at the same adult rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44041/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Age-related rates apply to 18 to 24 year olds in receipt of the means-tested Jobseeker's Allowance scheme.

Age-related reduced rates on Jobseeker's Allowance are designed to prevent long-term welfare dependency. If a young jobseeker participates in education or training, they receive up to the maximum personal rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance of €244. If they participate on the Work Placement Experience Programme the weekly rate increases up to €359. My Department offers a range of supports to assist young people into education or training.

At end of quarter one 2025, the number of jobseekers aged 18 to 24 years who are in receipt of the age-related rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance of €153.70 per week is 9,047.

The estimated full-year cost of increasing the age-related jobseeker’s rate of €153.70 to the full personal rate of €244 is approximately €42.5 million based on the current customer base and the rate of payment in 2025. Any changes to the rates of payment will be considered in a budgetary context in relation to the overall improvements in social welfare.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1882. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of providing the back to education grant to all BTEA applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44043/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Back to Education Allowance provides income support for jobseekers and others in receipt of certain social welfare payments who pursue courses of education at further or higher level, at a cost of almost €30 million in 2025.

The Cost of Education allowance of €500 per academic year is payable to households in receipt of Back to Education Allowance who have a qualified child payment on their claim.

There were approximately 3,700 BTEA recipients in the 2024/2025 academic year, of which 700 already received the Allowance. Using these numbers as a basis, it is estimated that the total additional cost to extend the Cost of Education Allowance to all participants at a rate of €500 would be €1.5 million per annum. Any changes to the payment of this allowance would be considered as part of the budgetary process in the context of overall improvements to social welfare.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1883. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the disability allowance income disregard to €200 or €250, respectively, and increasing the upper income cap to €400 or €450, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44044/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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A person can earn up to €165 a week and keep their full rate of Disability Allowance. Earnings between €165 and €375 from employment are assessed at 50%, and any earnings over €375 are fully assessed as means. This means that a person can earn up to €517.60 a week and still keep their entitlement to the minimum rate of Disability Allowance and their secondary benefits.

Estimating the cost of increasing the two Disability Allowance earnings disregards is complex and subject to a range of assumptions. My Department does not have an estimate available for the disregard change referred to by the Deputy.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1884. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the one-parent family payment and JST income disregards to €200 or €250, respectively, and to provide a breakdown of the cost for each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44045/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The full year cost of increasing the disregards across the two schemes is difficult to estimate with accuracy given labour market dynamics, wage fluctuations, and flows into, between, and out of schemes as the age of the youngest child reaches 7 and 14. It is also challenging to forecast the number of new claimants who would avail of the payment as a result of the increased threshold.

Based on information currently available to my department, the estimated cost of increasing the disregards to €200 and €250 per week are, €13.3m and €32.4m for the One-Parent Family Payment and €7.1m and €17.3m for the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment respectively. It should be noted that this estimate is based on current numbers of recipients only.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1885. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the projected cost of providing carer’s allowance to all those in receipt of the carer’s support grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44047/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Carer’s Support Grant is automatically paid to people in receipt of Carer's Allowance, Carer’s Benefit and Domiciliary Care allowance in June of each year. Carers not in receipt of one of these payments can also claim the grant once they meet the full-time care criteria. In this regard it is worth noting the following:

• In 2024 there were 135,586 recipients of the Carer’s Support Grant.
• 97,985 people were already in receipt of the weekly Carer’s Allowance payment.
• Some 4,107 people were in receipt of the weekly Carer's Benefit, the social insurance based equivalent of the Carer's Allowance scheme.
• Some 57,358 people were in receipt of Domiciliary Care Allowance, of which some 26,000 were in already in receipt of Carer's Allowance. Meaning that these carers satisfied all the conditions of the Carer's Allowance scheme, which also include not engaging in employment, education or training for more than 18.5 hours, along with the means test criteria and provision of full-time care and attention.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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1886. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the projected cost of providing carer’s allowance at a full rate to those caring for two or more people; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44048/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Where a carer is providing care to more than one person, the personal rate of Carer's Allowance payable is increased by a maximum of 50% of the standard personal rate. The current weekly personal rates of Carer’s Allowance for those who are caring for two or more people are €390 for those aged under 66 and €447 for those aged 66 or over.

At the start of 2025, there were 11,994 recipients of Carer’s Allowance caring for two or more people.

The estimated additional annual cost to provide a further 50% payment for this cohort would be in excess of €81 million.

It is important to note that this costing is an estimate based on administrative data. It is based on an under 66 years rate and does not take account of the higher rates available to those over 66. It takes no account of year-on-year increases in terms of recipients or increases in rates of payment.

Finally, the Programme for Government commits to examine how we can better support carers who are providing full-time care and attention to more than one person. We will advance that commitment over the lifetime of the Government and in light of available resources.

I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.