Abolishing income disregards for the carer’s allowance would take decades at the rate of reduction in last week’s budget, Sinn Féin has argued.
The Government increased the income disregard by 60 per cent from €625 to €1,000 for a single person and from €1,250 to €2,000 for a couple from next July in Budget 2026.
The Department of Social Protection confirmed the cost of doing so would be €10 million for next year, which would suggest a full-year cost in the region of €20 million.
It also said it has priced the abolition of the means test for the allowance at €600 million.
RM Block
Under the income disregard, the weekly level of income set in the budget is not taken into account when someone’s means are being assessed for the carer’s allowance.
Louise O’Reilly, Sinn Féin’s spokeswoman on social protection, said that in the run-in to the election, Government parties had been talking about abolishing the means test for carers.
“Now that the election is over we see that they’re putting less money into it than last year and with a mere €10 million for a half-year,” she said. The cost of reductions in last year’s budget was €11.8 million.
“It’ll take 30 years to abolish the means test for carers,” Ms O’Reilly said.
“This is quite shocking when set against their pre-election commitment. In our alternative budget Sinn Féin committed to spending €133 million to ensure that the means test is abolished over a single term in government.”
The Programme for Government commits the Coalition to “significantly increase” the income disregards in each budget “with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government”.
In response to Ms O’Reilly’s comments, a spokeswoman for the department said the Government will phase out the means test over the term of the Dáil in a progressive manner and as part of the annual budget process.
The Budget 2026 allocation for the scheme is €1.34 billion, with an increase for the full rate of payment of €10 per week, and proportionate increases for half time and reduced rates, she said.
Of the revisions to the thresholds she said: “These are the largest ever increases in the carer’s allowance income disregard and will mean that even people with what are considered to be relatively high incomes will qualify for a carer’s payment for the first time.
“For example, a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €110,000 will still retain their full carer’s allowance payment and even with an income of €138,000 will retain a partial payment.”
The department said that since June 2022, cumulative increases to disregards of 200 per cent have been applied.
“The department has estimated a cost of approximately €600 million to abolish the carer’s allowance means test. This is based on administrative data, with higher estimates based on census information. There are wider implications of departing from a means-tested approach above the cost exposure and for this reason the income disregard is being abolished in a measured way over a number of budgets.”
She said the changes are “evidence of the Government’s determination to deliver on its commitment in the Programme for Government, which is to eliminate the means test over the life of this Government”.
