Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 693: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason the limit of means for a couple in an assessment for allowance is €20,000 while it is also €20,000 for a single person; his plans to change this and if this limit excludes redundancy payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15024/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I understand that the Deputy is referring to the assessment of capital for the purposes of the jobseeker's allowance scheme. In assessing means for social assistance purposes, including jobseeker's allowance, account is taken of any cash income the person may have, together with the value of capital and property (except the home). Capital may include the following: · Stocks and shares of every description, which are assessed according to their current market value. · Savings certificates / bonds / national instalment savings, which are assessed according to their current market value. · Money invested in a bank, building society etc. Any balances of redundancy lump sums owned by a claimant or his or her spouse or partner are assessed in the same way as capital from any other source. In assessing the yearly value of the property or capital, no account is taken of the income, if any, from the property. For assessment purposes, the market value of the property is established together with the nominal amount of savings etc. and the yearly value for means testing purposes is assessed by reference to a formula. This formula is not designed to reflect the actual or potential income yield from the property or capital. A certain initial amount of property is not assessed with progressive increases in the assessment rate depending on the value of the property owned – this reflects the fact that persons with reasonable resources are in a position to use some of those resources to maintain themselves. The arrangements in the case of jobseeker's allowance are as follows:

Where a claimant has a spouse or a partner, the assessment is based on the combined means of the couple including any capital owned by either the spouse and partner or jointly. The formula outlined above is then applied, so for example, a single person or a couple with capital of €50,000 would receive €70 per week less than a person or couple with capital of up to 20,000. Assuming no other means, the total paid per week to a single person in these circumstances would be €126.00 while the total paid to a couple with no children would be €256.10, a reduction of €70 in both examples. There is no provision in the current arrangements for doubling the amount to be disregarded in the case of a couple. Any changes to the current capital assessment arrangements would fall to be considered in a Budgetary context and in the context of continuing to reduce overall public expenditure and restoring stability to the public finances.