Elderly woman endures year-long battle for carer’s allowance

AN elderly woman caring for her special needs sister has been forced to endure a year-long battle for a vital carer’s allowance because of a growing backlog of applications for the essential state financial support, it has been claimed.

The Irish Examiner has learned that the woman, who is from the mid-Tipperary area, made an initial application to the Department of Social and Family Affairs for a carer’s allowance in April 2008.

On 11 July last year, the department wrote to inform her that the application had been turned down as her sister was “not receiving full-time care and attention”. The woman rejected the claim on the grounds she was the only person caring for her disabled sister and the e220.50 a week or the half-rate payment was vital if her sister was to continue living in the community.