Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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262. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the basis on which assessment of means and entitlement to jobseeker's allowance is affected by any property such as a ten or 15 acre plot; the entitlement to FIS or to jobseeker's or neither in such circumstances, having particular regard to the extent to which farmers have an eligibility for jobseeker's allowance, FIS or an equivalent payment. [15496/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In assessing means for social assistance payments such as jobseeker’s allowance, account is taken of the income and the value of property, including capital, of the claimant and their spouse/partner. Social welfare legislation provides that the yearly value of property (including capital) owned but not personally used or enjoyed is assessable for means testing purposes. However, it does not include property such as the family home a person is personally using or enjoying i.e. residing in or a premises or a farm of land used by the claimant in carrying out a business.

In the case of jobseeker’s allowance, where the property is not being used to carry on a business or is not being farmed, the current market value of the property or land is established (having regard to local property prices) as well as the amount of any outstanding mortgages, if any. The balance (market value less outstanding mortgage) is assessed as capital by reference to a notional formula.

The capital assessment method involves disregarding an initial amount of capital (€20,000 for most social assistance schemes such as jobseeker’s allowance and the state pension non-contributory), and applying an increasing notional weekly value for amounts in excess of the disregarded amount, as outlined as follows. This approach reflects the policy of ensuring that those with property and capital of modest amounts receive the most available support, while those with larger amounts of capital contribute, at least partially, towards meeting their needs.

Table: Social Welfare Capital Means Assessment (excluding Supplementary Welfare Allowance and Disability Allowance)

The Family Income Supplement (FIS) scheme is a weekly tax-free payment to employees with children. The payment is designed to preserve the financial incentive to take-up or remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might be marginally better off in employment than on social welfare payments. To qualify for payment of FIS, a person must be engaged in insurable employment which is expected to last for at least three months and be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week. In this regard, unless a farmer (or his or her spouse/partner) met these qualifying criteria, he or she would not qualify for a FIS payment. It should be noted that capital is not assessable for FIS income limits purposes. Accordingly, if there was an income generated from the land, this would be assessed for FIS, but the value of capital itself, including land, is not assessable in the FIS scheme.

The most relevant scheme for farmers is my Department’s farm assist scheme. In Budget 2017, I was happy to announce the total reversal of cuts to Farm Assist, a programme which helps more than 8,000 farm families. The farm assist scheme supplements mostly small farms on poor agricultural land. Recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes.

As part of Budget 2017, I announced improvements to the means testing arrangements of the Farm Assist scheme. Since 8 of March 2017, 70% of farm income is now assessed as means for farm assist recipients, down from 100%. This is equivalent to a 30% income disregard. Furthermore, an additional annual means disregard of €254 for each of the first two children and €381 for the third and subsequent children now applies for farm families.

All existing farm assist recipients currently assessed with means will have their payments adjusted to take into account the changes in Budget 2017.

As also announced in Budget 2017, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Farm Assist recipients have also benefitted from the €5 per week increase in the weekly rates of payment. In addition, farm assist recipients and long-term jobseeker’s allowance recipients benefitted from the 85% Christmas Bonus paid December last.