John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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1776. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider an exemption for wards of court funds from the calculation of disability allowance for persons in budget 2018; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36903/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Social welfare legislation provides that all income and property (excluding the family home) of the claimant and his or her spouse/partner is assessable for means assessment purposes of social assistance schemes.

The purpose of contingency based income support payments such as Disability Allowance is to provide an income to those who have no other source of income (or only a very limited level of income). The assessment of means is a way of checking if a person has access to an income or if their income is so low as to warrant an income support payment. In this regard, a person who is a ward of court is treated in the same manner as any other social welfare claimant.

All means tested schemes assess capital assets (other than the family home) with an initial amount of capital that is disregarded for means purposes. For most social assistance schemes, such as Jobseeker’s Allowance, Farm Assist, One-Parent Family Payment and the State Pension Non-Contributory, the first €20,000 of capital is disregarded. In the case of Disability Allowance, the initial disregard is significantly higher at €50,000. This means, for example, that a Disability Allowance claimant with €50,000 in savings (and no other means) can be assessed as having nil means and, as a result, receive the maximum rate of Disability Allowance.

It should be noted that a claimant of Disability Allowance, or indeed other social welfare payments, can ask for a review of their welfare entitlement at any stage. Should the value of a claimant’s funds have decreased, this may generate an entitlement or an increase to a social welfare payment.