275. Deputy Colm Brophy asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the carer’s allowance to €325 per week and abolish the means test associated with the payment. [45966/24]

The estimated full year cost to increase the Carer's Allowance payment for over 66's from its current weekly rate €286, to a weekly rate of €325 is €22.5m.  The estimated full year cost to increase the Carer's Allowance payment for under 66's from its current weekly rate €248, to a weekly rate of €325 is €262.5m.  The combined cost is €285m.

Estimating the abolition of a means test is difficult and any such estimate is by definition high level and as such should be treated with caution as the actual outcome may be quite different.  The Department estimates that removing the means test for carer's allowance in its entirety would give rise to additional costs of more than €600 million.  Taking account of estimates of inflows, this could potentially increase to between €880 million and €2 billion a year.

The costs shown above are on a full year basis and are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2025.  It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2025.