- Weekly income disregard for Carer’s Allowance increases to €450 for a single person and €900 for a couple
- Carer’s Benefit Income Limit increases by €100 to €450 per week
The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys TD, has announced a series of improvements to the Government’s supports for carers.
For the second time in two years, Minister Humphreys is introducing changes to the means test that applies to carers so that many more can avail of Carer’s Allowance or potentially receive a higher rate of payment.
The weekly income disregard for Carer’s Allowance has increased to €450 per week for single carers, and to €900 per week for a couple. This change was implemented from last Thursday.
This amounts to cumulative increases to the disregards of €117.50 for a single carer and €235 for a carer who is part of couple since June 2022.
The Carer's Allowance is a means tested social assistance payment.
The income disregards that apply to the payment are the highest income disregards in the social welfare system.
Meanwhile, the Carer’s Benefit income limit will also increase from €350 to €450.
Carer’s Benefit is a social insurance based payment paid to people who leave work or reduce their hours to care for a person in need of full-time care.
Announcing the introduction of the changes today, Minister Humphreys said:
“Since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have always worked to support our carers and their families.
“I have increased the weekly carers payments in each of the past three Budgets, provided long term carers access to a State pension for the first time, increased the Carer’s Support Grant to its highest level of €1,850 and increased the capital disregard for carer’s to €50,000.
“One of the areas that our carers have raised with me regularly is the Carer’s means test.
“As part of Budget 2022, I introduced the first changes to the means test in 14 years and today I am going even further.
“From last week, I increased the weekly earnings disregard by €100 to €450 for a single person and by €150 to €900 a week for a couple.
“These changes are significant and will mean many carers currently on a reduced rate of payment due to means will now qualify for an increased rate.
“As well as that, those carers who may not have qualified for a payment at all up to this point may now be able to access Carer’s Allowance.”
Minister Humphreys also confirmed the increase to the income limit for Carer’s Benefit, adding:
“I am very pleased to also announce the Carer’s Benefit income limit will increase by €100 to €450.
“The Carer’s Benefit payment is a very effective payment in meeting the needs of those carers who are working and need to reduce their hours or leave the workforce for a short period to care for a loved one.
“This is in addition to changes previously made to the Carer’s Support Grant which was increased to €1,850 and paid to 132,000 carers last week.”
Notes:
Carer’s Allowance
Carer’s Allowance is a means-tested payment for people living in Ireland who are looking after someone who needs support because of age, physical or learning disability or illness, including mental illness.
Carer’s Allowance is primarily aimed at carers on low incomes who live with and look after certain people who need full-time care and attention. Carer’s Allowance may be paid at half-rate with certain other social welfare payments.
There are currently 96,826 recipients of Carer’s Allowance. The projected expenditure on Carer’s Allowance alone in 2024 is approximately €1.1 billion.
The income disregard and means test for Carer’s Allowance is the highest within the social welfare system.
The change to the Carer’s Allowance payment is in addition to a number of improvements, including the increase in the Carer’s Support Grant, which is now €1,850, the highest rate since its introduction. Other improvements include: -
- The period of time for which both Domiciliary Care Allowance and Carer’s Allowance are paid in circ*mstances where a child is hospitalised on a full-time basis was doubled from 13 weeks to 26 weeks.
- Last month the Minister signed legislation to extend this period during which Domiciliary Care Allowance is payable for babies who remain in an acute hospital after birth from six months to 18 months.
- From January 2024, a new Long-Term Carers Contribution scheme was introduced. This significant reform enables long term carers, who have been caring for 20 years or more, to qualify for the State Pension Contributory.
- The weekly Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit payments have increased by €29 in the last three years.
- Under this Government the Domiciliary Care Allowance has increased by €30.50 to a rate of €340 per month.
Carer’s Benefit
Carer's Benefit is a payment made to insured people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person(s) in need of full-time care. It 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).
There are currently 3,965 carers in receipt of the Carer’s benefit payment. Projected expenditure on Carer’s Benefit in 2024 is estimated at almost €58 million.
The changes announced mean that a person can earn up to €450 per week after tax and providing they meet the other conditions of the scheme (i.e. provision of full-time care and social insurance conditions) they may qualify for this payment.
