Calls for minimum wage pay for carers

LOBBY groups for carers have called for payment equal to the minimum wage for those looking after ageing, disabled or infirm relatives in the home.

Carers are paid either a benefit or allowance up to a maximum of €200 a week, but Care Alliance Ireland (CAI) claims this is a subsistence payment and not a reflection of the work carers are doing.

CAI national development officer Liam O'Sullivan said: "Many carers' organisations feel the carer's allowance should not be viewed solely as a subsistence payment, as it currently is, but more akin to a wage, as is done in many European countries."

Age Action Ireland (AAI) has backed the CAI call for payment equal to the minimum wage - €7.65 an hour - generating a far better income than is currently available to carers.

AAI spokesman Paul Murray said the payment carers receive should be as near as possible to the cost of care.

"What has happened is that payment to carers is regarded as an extra. It does not take into account if you have to give up work to look after someone," Mr Murray said.

"It is nowhere near the actual cost of care. Payment to carers should be similar to the gross average industrial wage (approx €30,000)."

Mr Murray said they did not expect this to happen overnight but steps had to be taken "to ensure our 150,000 carers who look after relatives in the home are given benefits that equate in some way to real wages".

At the moment, a single carer can earn €290 a week and still be entitled to the carer's allowance of €180.70. A married couple can earn €580 a week.

For those in receipt of carer's benefit, the entitlement is €180 per week for those under the age of 66 and €200 a week for those over 66. The carer's benefit is means-tested, and to be eligible for the maximum weekly sum, the carers must either be living with the person he/she is looking after or be in a position to provide full-time care.

Mr Murray said they would argue that providing a healthy allowance/benefit allows more people to act as carers, allowing a higher proportion of elderly or infirm people to remain at home "which is what most of them want, what their families want and what Government policy intends".

The Government is committed to rolling out an additional 2,000 home care packages by the end of this year.

All of these issues will be discussed at CAI's annual seminar, which takes place today in Chief O'Neill's Hotel, Smithfield Village, Dublin 7.