To ask the Minister for Communities to detail (i) the estimated number of unpaid carers that would qualify for Carers’ Allowance; and (ii) the corresponding cost.

The Department for Communities does not hold data on the total number of people who care, unpaid, for a friend or family member.

My Department has responsibility for administering Carer’s Allowance. I am aware that the benefit caseload numbers will not fully capture all of those people in our community that provide some degree of unpaid care and support for an ill, older or disabled family member, or friend. However, the most recent figures available from February 2021 indicate that the number of claimants entitled to Carer’s Allowance here is 75,210 people.

In terms of cost, my Department provided approximately £182 million in support to carers in receipt of Carer’s Allowance in the 2020-21 financial year. Since 2011 the Department for Communities has paid over £1,507 million (i.e. £1.5 billion) to those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance here.

The Department for Communities has a ‘Make the Call Wraparound Service’ with the aim to ensure that every individual and household here is receiving all the social security benefits and other supports and services to which they and their families are entitled. The number of successful claims to Carer’s Allowance following Make the Call assistance in 2019/20 was 624.