FG proposes €140m support plan for carers

Fine Gael has proposed a €140 million package to provide improved financial and other supports for carers.

Under the plan, launched yesterday, only the income of a carer - and not that of a spouse - would be considered for assessment as part of the means test for the carer's allowance.

Fine Gael also said it would change the situation where some elderly people and widows/widowers were disqualified from receiving a carer's allowance because they were in receipt of a State pension.

Under the plan such people would be allowed to get a half-payment of the carer's allowance on top of their State pension.

Fine Gael has also proposed that carers who give up work would have their PRSI contributions paid during the period of caring to ensure that they would not be caught by new rules which require an increased number of PRSI contributions to qualify for the old age contributory pension.

The party said it would also allow persons in receipt of the carer's allowance to work for up to 20 hours a week. This relaxation of the current rules would be conditional on the workplace being close to the residence of the care recipient, the employer allowing the carer to leave work, without penalty in an emergency, and on there being provisions to meet the needs of the care recipient while the carer was at work.

Fine Gael has also proposed a PRSI exemption for employers who take on a former carer and the introduction of a new certificate of skills for carers who may wish to continue caring for another person.

It has also proposed the introduction of a new "one-stop-shop" to advise carers on their entitlements in relation to State services, including the carer's allowance, nursing home subventions, meals on wheels, medical cards and home helps.

Under the Fine Gael plan there would also be a new focus on around 3,000 young carers under the age of 18 who provide care for others. It said that there would be increased supports such as the provision of home helps and new educational assistance.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said carers worked 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and that if they ever went on strike the health service would grind to a halt. If elected the new measures would form part of the programme for government with the Labour Party and would be implemented immediately.

Fine Gael spokesman on social and family affairs David Stanton said the reforms of the means test for the carer's allowance would cost €100 million. The cost of keeping a person in a long-stay bed was around €54,000 per year on average while the carer's allowance provided €10,000. The new measures were practical and and made economic sense.

Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan said yesterday that there had been a five-fold increase in carer's payments under the current Government.