Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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51. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to change the way in which capital is assessed for all means tested payments and bring it in line with the way in which it is assessed for medical and general practitioner cards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26316/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department operates a range of means-tested social assistance payments. Social welfare legislation provides that the means test takes account of the income and assets of the person (and spouse/partner, if applicable) applying for the relevant scheme. Income and assets include income from employment, self-employment, occupational pensions, maintenance payments as well as property owned (other than the family home) and capital such as savings, shares and other investments. The capital assessment formula for social assistance schemes is outlined in the following table:

For most social assistance schemes (such as jobseeker’s allowance, farm assist, carer’s allowance, one-parent family payment and the state pension non-contributory), the initial disregard of capital is €20,000. In the case of disability allowance, there is an initial €50,000 disregard, and for supplementary welfare allowance, an initial disregard of €5,000 applies.

In the case of carer’s allowance and the state pension non-contributory, capital is halved when assessing means for a claimant who is one of a couple. There are also general means disregards applicable in these schemes.

In this regard, the capital assessment for the medical card may be more generous than the means assessment for some social assistance schemes, but it is also more onerous than some others. Furthermore, it should be noted that eligibility for an income support is quite distinct from eligibility for a medical card.

Any proposal to change the means assessment for means-tested social assistance schemes would have to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context.