David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if there has been any change in the way that the universal social charge or any other taxes or levies are assessed by her Department for the purposes of means assessment for any of her Department's allowance based payments in the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49001/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There have been no changes to the treatment of the universal social charge (USC) for means testing purposes for social assistance payments over the past 12 months.

The earnings assessed for social assistance means testing purposes generally is based on earnings net of PRSI contributions, superannuation/PRSA contributions and trade union subscriptions. No account is taken in the calculation of any income tax or USC payable on earnings.

The one exception to this arrangement relates to entitlement to Family Income Supplement. This has been, for many years, assessed net of all statutory charges including income tax. This approach has been continued following the introduction of the universal social charge. Family Income Supplement is assessed on the basis of net income after deduction of all statutory charges including the universal social charge, income tax and PRSI.

The programme for government contained a commitment to review the universal social charge. It was announced in Budget 2012 that, following this review, the exemption level was being raised from €4,004 to €10,036 per annum and this came into effect from the beginning of January last. It was estimated, at the time, that this measure would benefit nearly 330,000 people (including part-time workers in receipt of primary weekly welfare payments).