Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 1009: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the growing disincentive for applicants of the financial contribution scheme for senior citizens to avail of the scheme due to the failure to update and raise the disregard threshold for means accruing from this scheme in line with house price inflation; will he immediately address the information deficit that currently exists for applicants in respect of the potential impact of the scheme on their social welfare entitlements; and will he immediately sign new regulations allowing for the disregard threshold to be updated. [28724/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Financial contribution schemes are operated by local authorities in order to facilitate older people who wish to move from private accommodation, which may be too large for them, into local authority housing as tenants. The issue for my Department is how the proceeds of such a sale are treated in the means test for social assistance payments.

Social assistance payments are designed to provide financial support for people who do not qualify for one of the contributory pension or benefit schemes. Entitlement to these payments is based on a means test which is intended to ensure that available resources are targeted at those who are most in need. Accordingly, any resources that a claimant and his or her spouse or partner may have are assessed. These resources may include cash income, property, or an asset which could bring in money or provide the claimant with an income. The value of a person's primary residence is not taken into account in the means test.

The sale of residence provisions are designed to facilitate certain persons who are in receipt of a means tested payment from this Department in selling their principal residence for the purpose of:

buying or renting alternative accommodation which s/he occupies as his/her only or main residence; or

moving into a private nursing home which has been registered under Section 4, Health (Nursing Home) Acts, 1990;

moving in with their carer who is in receipt of carer's allowance or carer's benefit in respect of them; or

moving to sheltered or special housing in the voluntary, co-operative, statutory or private sectors that is funded under the Capital Assistance Scheme operated by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Where alternative accommodation is being purchased the difference between the agreed sale price of the former residence and the agreed purchase price of the replacement residence, subject to a maximum of €190,461, is exempt from the means test. Where no alternative accommodation is being purchased the gross proceeds of the sale are defined as the agreed sale price of the residence and are disregarded in the means test also to a maximum of €190,461.

These provisions apply to recipients of disability allowance, blind person's pension and those over age 66 years who receive a means tested payment from this Department and they are intended to facilitate choice for certain people who might previously have been living alone or in unsuitable accommodation.

Information on the means tests for non-contributory pensions is available from the Social Welfare Services Office, College Rd, Sligo. Information booklets which include information on the means tests are available at local Social Welfare Offices and information is also available on my Department's website at www.welfare.ie or by telephoning the Department's LoCall leaflet Request Line at 1890 20 23 25. Information on entitlement to all social services is also provided by the Citizens Information Centres.

I am always prepared to consider changes to existing arrangements where these are for the benefit of recipients and financially sustainable within the resources available to me. Those recommendations involving additional expenditure can only be considered in a budgetary context.