Eligibility for married carers
Fitzpatrick asks whether married women, including those supported by their husbands, can qualify for the prescribed relative allowance. Woods cites the current eligibility rule and says extending it would have significant costs for consideration in the budget.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if, in view of the trend towards community care rather than hospitalisation, he will extend the scope of the prescribed relative allowance scheme to include married women, even in cases where their husbands are earning.
Comment on this
The prescribed relative allowance is an increase of the pension payable to an incapacitated pensioner who is receiving full time care and attention from a prescribed relative. One of the conditions for receipt of the allowance is that the relative must not be a married person who is being wholly or mainly maintained by his or her spouse.
Any extension of the scheme along the lines proposed would have serious cost implications and is a matter for consideration in the context of the budget.
The Commission on Social Welfare recommended that "prescribed relatives should be entitled to claim social assistance in their own right and that in this context the prescribed relative allowance be abolished".