Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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575. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide the list of disregards available to those with a disability in respect of their social welfare benefits. [52049/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Department provides social insurance and social assistance payments. Eligibility for social insurance payments is based on Pay Related Social Insurance contributions and social assistance payments are means-tested.

The assessment of means reflects the fact that there is an expectation that people with reasonable amounts of income or capital are in a position to use these resources to support themselves, so that social welfare expenditure can be directed towards those who need it most. The continued application of the means test not only ensures that the recipient has a verifiable income need but that resources are targeted to those with greatest need.

The two long-term disability payments where a means test and disregards apply are the Disability Allowance (DA) and the Blind Pension (BP).

DA is the Department’s largest disability related payment with some 154,000 persons in receipt of DA as of August 2021. It is payable to persons between the ages of 16 and 66 with a specified disability which is expected to last at least 1 year, and who by reason of that disability, are substantially restricted in undertaking work.

BP is a small scheme with 1,047 recipients as of August 2021. BP is paid to blind people and certain people with low vision, aged between 18 and 66.

Cash/income that is assessed as part of the means test includes any income from employment or self-employment (and that of their spouse/partner, if applicable), income from a social security pension from another country and maintenance payments.

Capital assessed as part of the means test includes all monies held in financial institutions or otherwise, the market value of shares, as well as houses and premises owned by a claimant which may or may not be put to commercial use. Property personally used / the claimant’s home is never assessed as part of the means test, regardless of who is the legal owner.

Both DA and BP have been designed to support persons to pursue their employment ambitions, be that self-employment or insurable employment.The income disregards for the DA and BP allow claimants to earn up to €140 per week from employment or self-employment without their payment being affected.

The capital disregard allows for people to have capital to a certain level without their payment being affected. The tables below set out the formula used for determining weekly means from capital for DA and BP.

Table: Weekly means formula for capital, Disability Allowance

Table: Weekly means formula for capital, Blind Pension

Earlier this year, a new income disregard was introduced for Disability Allowance recipients who have been granted bursaries, stipends or scholarships towards completing a PhD. The disregard has been designed so that a person may receive funding of up to €20,000 per annum (i.e. if a recipient gets more than one bursary, the combination cannot exceed €20,000) without impacting on their payment. This disregard is available for a maximum of four years. Budget 2022 saw the eligibility for this disregard expanded to recipients of the Blind Pension from January 2022.

It should be noted that social welfare legislation also provides for the disregard of certain compensation awards when assessing the means of a person. These disregards include, for example, all income derived from compensation awarded by the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and in relation to disability caused by Thalidomide. Any payment made by the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board is also disregarded for social welfare means test purposes. In addition, ex gratiapayments made to women who were admitted to and worked in the Magdalen Laundries, or through the Symphysiotomy Payment Scheme, or payments made by the Minister of Health in accordance with recommendations proposed by the Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme are also disregarded.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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576. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to increase the means threshold for disabled persons when the income of their spouse is taken into account when assessing disability allowance applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52084/21]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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577. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on whether it is fair to include the income of a spouse when assessing applications for disability allowance in view of the additional costs that disabled persons encounter in their daily lives; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52086/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 576 and 577 together.

Social welfare legislation provides that, for social assistance schemes, all income and capital (such as savings, investments and property other than the family home) belonging to the claimant and his or her spouse/partner, where applicable, are assessable for means assessment purposes.

The means test plays a critical role in determining whether an income need arises as a consequence of a particular contingency – such as disability, unemployment or caring.

If a claimant is married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting, the Department will assess the couple's means when carrying out a means test for a social assistance payment. This is the case even if only one of the couple is actually claiming a payment. This is not exclusive to Disability Allowance and applies to all of the Department's social assistance schemes.

The purpose of assessing household, rather than individual income, is to ensure that resources are targeted at households which need them most.

It should be noted that the household means limit for a Disability Allowance claimant with a spouse or cohabiting partner is higher than for a single claimant. This is because the rate of payment is calculated with reference to the family rate, which is based on full personal rate, a full qualified adult rate and full child dependent rate/s (where applicable) less means.

This means that, for example, a claimant living with their spouse or partner can have household means of up €337.50 and still retain entitlement to a minimum payment, compared to €202.50 for a single applicant.

From June 2022 the general means disregard for recipients of Disability Allowance will increase from €2.50 to €7.60 per week. Together with the €5 increase to the personal rate of payment and €3.30 increase for qualified adults from January 2022, this will mean that a claimant living with their spouse or partner with weekly household means of up to €350.10, or a single applicant with means of up to €212.60 will be entitled to a minimum payment.

The capital assessment formula applying to Disability Allowance is also unique in the social welfare system, in that the first €50,000 is fully disregarded; the next €10,000 assessed at €1 per thousand, the next €10,000 is assessed at €2 per thousand, with the remainder assessed at €4 per thousand. For most other social assistance schemes, the amount that is fully disregarded is €20,000.

Any changes to the means assessment criteria for Disability Allowance would need to be considered in an overall budgetary and policy context.