Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys(Image: Collins)

Cost of living Ireland: Social welfare recipients can qualify for payment worth over €400 a week

by · RSVP Live

Social welfare recipients can qualify for a payment worth up to €429 a week.

The Carer's Allowance income disregard will increase to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple, from July 2025.

That means people can earn more money before being excluded from eligibility for the social welfare benefit.

Read more: What cost of living benefits will be paid and what bills are going up in December

Read more: Cost of living Ireland: Full list of social welfare payments excluded from yearly €780 increase

Carer's Allowance is a weekly social welfare payment to people who care for someone because of their:

  • Age
  • Disability, or
  • Illness (including mental illness).

To qualify for the payment, your income must be below a certain amount.

If you care for 2 or more people, your rate of Carer's Allowance is increased by 50% (maximum) each week.

If you get another social welfare payment, you may get half-rate Carer’s Allowance.

Minster for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys(Image: Collins)

Criteria

You can get Carer's Allowance if you care full-time for someone who is:

  • Aged 16 or over, and who is so incapacitated that they need full-time care and attention for at least 12 months, or
  • Aged under 16, and for whom you get Domiciliary Care Allowance.

As well as providing full-time care, you must:

  • Be aged 18 or over
  • Be habitually resident in Ireland
  • Not be employed, self-employed, doing voluntary work, training, or any education courses for more than 18.5 hours a week
  • Not live in a hospital, convalescent home, or a similar institution
  • Pass a means test
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What counts as full-time care?

To get Carer’s Allowance, you must care full-time for someone who is:

  • Aged 16 or over, and who is so incapacitated that they need full-time care and attention for at least 12 months, or
  • Aged under 16, and for whom you get Domiciliary Care Allowance.

Full-time care means:

  • You continuously supervise the person so they don’t put themselves in danger, or
  • You continuously supervise and assist the person throughout the day with personal care (for example, helping them to eat, drink, get washed and dressed).
  • You must care for them at least 35 hours per week, over 5-7 days.

The Department of Social Protection will decide if you are providing full time care.

You can out more about the payment here.