Mr. Niall Egan:

There are cliff edges in social welfare systems but they are predominantly around working patterns. For instance, a person on jobseeker's allowance or a jobseeker's benefit payment cannot work more than three days in any consecutive seven-day period. If that person works on a fourth day, he or she is not entitled to the payment for that particular week. There is a sliding scale when it comes to the means test; it is a tapered payment. Once a person has a euro, depending on his or her means, it gives that person entitlement to the payment, albeit at a small level, but it can also trigger secondary payments such as fuel allowance or other entitlements.

As for the increase for the qualified adult and the means review, there is a cliff edge for qualified adults in receipt of a social insurance scheme with means in excess of €310. It is a tapered scale for an adult with any means below that figure. If a social insurance recipient has means of less than €100, he or she receives the full qualified adult payment. If the qualified adult has means between €100 and €310, the payment is tapered on a sliding scale. There is a cliff edge. As regards the purpose of the means test, however, there is an expectation that people who have reasonable levels of income and capital are in a position to use those resources to support themselves. If a person qualifies for a means-tested payment, that means they are not in a position to support themselves fully or on a tapered level. The idea behind this is that social welfare expenditure is directed towards those most in need. This drives the reasons the social welfare system is so effective in poverty alleviation, as I referred to earlier in the context of the survey on income and living conditions. However, the purpose of the means review is to look at issues such as the one the Deputy highlighted. As I set out in my opening statement, changes have been made in recent budgets to make the means test more generous, but it is an ongoing process and part of the review to further inform budget 2025.