Currently I’m caring full-time for my elderly mother and adult brother with a severe mental disability. I’m not in receipt of any income support and am reliant on mother’s income to survive as I am not in a position to work. Does the budget give any assistance to people in such a situation?
Mr G.C.
It seems to me that you should be on carer’s allowance anyway – even before the budget – but you appear to have slipped through the cracks in our welfare system.
Carers are among the most invisible people in our society. Everyone, including the Government, assumes they will step in to care for relatives or friends when the State has nowhere near the structural capacity to do so but no one, especially Government, seems to be overly worried at the personal financial hit such a decision may involve.
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And it is not as though they are an insignificant group in terms of numbers. According to Census 2021, almost 300,000 people – 6 per cent of the population – provide “regular unpaid personal help or support to a family member, neighbour or friend with a long-term illness, health issue or an issue related to old age or disability”
That’s a jump of more than 50 per cent since the previous census, in 2016. Not all qualify for carer’s allowance, which is means tested and has other criteria but, at the end of 2022, close to 92,000 people were in receipt of the payment.
Carers rightly point out that they save the Government billions of euro that it would incur in care costs in the absence of family carers, and take particular umbridge at the nature of the means test they are obliged to go through in order to receive any State financial support.
A report from Family Carers Ireland last year noted that means testing based on the household income rather than on the individual income of the family carer forces carers, more than three-quarters of whom are women, to be financially reliant on their partner.
That same report also compared the €236 a week payment eligible carers received at the time to the basic income for artists, which is paid at €325 a week, noting pointedly that “significant change in how we recognise and value certain sectors of our society is possible” given Government support.
However, bad and all as the financial position of carers is, it has to be better than relying on the income of your mother for whom you care because you cannot work. So what are the criteria for the carer’s allowance?
You need to be over the age of 18, living in Ireland and not working for more than 18-and-a-half hours a week as an employee, self-employed or even in voluntary work. That same weekly limit applies to training or education courses.
The person you care for needs to be over the age of 16 and require full-time care and attention for at least a year. You can also qualify in respect of younger people but that’s not relevant here.
Full-time care is the key here and it is the Department of Social Protection which determines if that is the case. The first threshold is that it must involve care for at least 35 hours a week over five to seven days. Less specifically, it requires that you “continuously supervise” the person or people so that they do not put themselves in harm’s way, and assist them with personal care, including feeding and dressing.
If you are approved for the allowance, you will not lose it because the person or people you care for need to go into hospital – as long as that is for a period of less than 13 weeks. You are also allowed to take up to three weeks’ holidays a year, as long as you ensure alternative care arrangements are in place.
Assuming you meet those condition, you must then pass the means test. This looks at both your income and any savings or investments you may have.
The first thing the department does is consider any cash income you may receive from employment or any other means – such as rental income, dividends etc. From what you say, this is not relevant to you. For those whom it is, it is worth noting that PRSI, pension contributions and union dues are subtracted before considering your income – but not income tax or USC, which always strikes me as odd.
Certain income is not taken into account. That includes anything you might receive up to the €14,000 annually cap under the rent-a-room scheme. It also includes compensation you may have received under any one of the growing State compensation schemes; and it includes most social welfare payments.
Turning to savings and assets, the first thing to say is that your own home – if you own one – is not assessed. On top of that, the first €50,000 of savings or assets is ignored. If you are part of a couple, your family assets are divided in two, and the first €50,000 of your share discarded.
After that €50,000 threshold, you are deemed to get €1 a week in income from every thousand euro of the next €10,000 (up to €60,000) and €2 per €1,000 between €60,000 and €70,000. Beyond €70,000, every €1,000 is deemed to deliver €4 per a week.
At the end of the day, the first €450 of your total weekly income, as measured in the means test, is not taken into account in assessing your payment. That figure will jump to €625 a week from January 2025.
The full weekly carer’s allowance payment is currently €248, a figure that will rise to €260 a week in January when the €12 increase in social welfare payments kicks in.
The key thing here is if you are not on the allowance, you are going to miss out on all these payments to which, it seems to me, you are very much entitled. So I urge you to apply for it as soon as possible
If, as you do, a person is caring for two or more people, the rate of carer’s allowance is increased by up to 50 per cent a week – so, to a maximum of €372 this year and €390 next year.
Anyone in receipt of the carer’s allowance automatically receives the carer’s support grant every June. Formerly known as the respite care grant, it was designed to fund a break for carers by allowing them pay for respite for the people they care for. In reality, for most people, it simply goes toward paying the bills.
This year, the grant was worth €1,850. That will rise to €2,000 next year.
Carer’s allowance recipients also receive a GP visit card if you do not already qualify for such a card or a medical card, as well as free travel on public transport and, if you live with the person or people you are caring for, access to the household benefits package. This gives you a free TV licence and €1.15 a day towards the cost of either your gas bill or your electricity bill.
In addition, under the cost-of-living package in the recent budget, you would be entitled to a double payment of your allowance in October and November and a €400 lump sum payment. The carer’s allowance will also, from January, become a qualifying payment for the €33-a-week fuel allowance that is paid for 28 weeks of the year from late September.
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You will still have to pass a separate means tests for the fuel allowance. Unlike carer’s allowance, the capital exempted from that means test is just €20,000 unless you are aged 70 or older, in which case the €50,000 disregard applies. Only one fuel allowance is payable per household.
If you do qualify for the fuel allowance, Budget 2025 will give you a €300 lump sum payment on that account. That is on top of the €400 lump sum being paid to everyone who qualifies for the carer’s support grant.
The key thing here is if you are not on the allowance, you are going to miss out on all these payments to which, it seems to me, you are very much entitled. So I urge you to apply for it as soon as possible.
You’ll need to fill out one application form for carer’s allowance (CR1) for each person you are providing care to. The form can be downloaded online or picked up at any Intreo or Citizens Information Centre. As part of the process, you will need to have a medical report on the person you are caring for completed and signed by that person and by their doctor.
It does not seem to apply to you but for people who are already in receipt of another social welfare payment, they may be entitled to a half-rate carer’s allowance.
Finally, for those with a recent PRSI record who find themselves caring for a family member, you will be entitled to carer’s benefit for two years. It is not means tested and you qualify on the back of your PRSI record. The amount payable is €249 a week, rising to €373.50 if you are looking after more than on person.
There are specific qualifying criteria and other benefits that do differ from the carer’s allowance – not least the lack of a means test – but it is not relevant to you and we have anyway run out of space.
Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to dominic.coyle@irishtimes.com with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice
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