82. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of carers whose applications for carer's allowance were refused solely as a result of the means test in each of the past five years; and the average amount by which applicants exceeded the income threshold. [67315/26]

Carer’s Allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment for people who are providing full-time care and attention to a person who requires such care.

There are a number of qualifying conditions for Carer’s Allowance.  These include conditions relating to the care recipient’s need for full-time care and attention, the provision of that care by the applicant, the applicant’s employment or education circumstances, residency requirements and satisfaction of the means test.

An application may be disallowed where one or more of the qualifying conditions for the scheme are not satisfied.  My Department’s administrative systems do not record disallowed applications in a manner that enables cases where the means test was the sole reason for disallowance to be separately identified.  It is therefore not possible to provide the number of applications disallowed solely on means grounds in each of the past five years.

Similarly, the Department’s systems do not capture the amount by which the assessable means of unsuccessful applicants exceeded the applicable limit in a manner that would enable the average amount requested by the Deputy to be calculated.  Accordingly, this information is not available.

The means test for Carer’s Allowance has, however, been significantly improved in recent years.  As part of Budget 2026, I announced further improvements which took effect from 2 July this year.  The weekly income disregard increased by 60%, from €625 to €1,000 for a single person and from €1,250 to €2,000 for carers who are part of a couple.

These are the largest ever increases in the income disregards.  They mean that a carer in a two-adult household with an income of €110,000 can retain their full Carer’s Allowance payment, and a partial payment may be payable at household income of up to €138,000.  This encompasses up to 90% of couple households in the State.

In addition, almost 2,700 existing Carer’s Allowance recipients benefited from an increase in their rate of payment following the July change, and virtually all Carer’s Allowance recipients are now receiving the maximum rate applicable to their circumstances.

The Government recognises the vital contribution made by family carers and remains committed to supporting them through the social protection system.