Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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229. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a person in receipt of carers allowance and is working 18.5 hours is paid by their employer for their break times and are included as working hours; the measures her Department uses to ensure that the person is not subject to repayments or review when not physically working during their lunch break. [55877/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Carer’s Allowance is a means-tested payment for people who are providing full-time care to someone who needs significant support due to age, physical or learning disability or illness, including mental illness. The main objective of the Carer’s Allowance payment is to provide an income support to carers whose ability to earn is substantially reduced because of their caring responsibilities.

To qualify for the Carer’s Allowance payment, the applicant must provide full-time care and attention to a person who is so incapacitated that they require this level of care for at least 12 months.

A carer is regarded as providing full-time care and attention to a relevant person, where the number of hours providing such care is not less than 35 hours in a period of seven consecutive days, and care is provided on any five days, whether consecutive or not, within a period of seven consecutive days.

While carer income support payments are based on the provision of full-time care and attention, it also allows carers to engage in work, training or education for up to 18.5 hours per week. In effect, a carer can engage in these activities for half of a full-time working 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.

In relation to working hours, the Department relies on the hours reported by the carer regarding their weekly engagement in employment, education or training. The application form includes a question regarding the number of hours of work, self-employment, education or training. It does not include any question regarding break times.

In setting the relevant working hours thresholds, it is essential to balance the needs of the carer and the person to whom care is being provided.

I am satisfied that the 18.5-hour limitation for Carer’s Allowance 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, supporting a carer’s continued connection to the workforce and broader social inclusion.

Any proposals for changes to this condition would need to maintain this balance and would have to be considered within a wider budgetary and policy context.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.