Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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423. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of abolishing the means test for the blind pension. [33518/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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At the end of April 2021 there were almost 155,000 persons in receipt of means tested disability payments from my Department, comprising 153,805 on Disability Allowance and 1,069 in receipt of Blind Pension.

The Blind Pension is paid, subject to a means test, to blind people and certain people with low vision, aged between 18 and 66, who are habitually resident in the State. 

The means assessment reflects the fact that there is an expectation that people with reasonable amounts of income or capital are in a position to use these resources to support themselves, so that social welfare expenditure can be directed towards those who need it most.

In the means test, cash income that is assessed includes any income from employment or self-employment (and spouse/partner, if applicable), income from a social security pension from another country and maintenance payments.  

Recipients are also supported to pursue employment or self-employment through earning disregards in the means test.  A recipient can earn up to €140 per week from employment or self-employment without their payment being affected, while weekly earnings between €120 and €350 are assessed at a 50% rate.

Capital assessed as part of the means test includes all monies held in financial institutions or otherwise, the market value of shares, as well as houses and premises owned by a claimant which may or may not be put to commercial use.  The family home is never assessed as part of the means test, regardless of who is the legal owner.

The conditions attached to payment of Disability Allowance and Blind Pension are consistent with the overall conditions that apply to social assistance payments generally.  This system of social assistance supports provides payments based on an income need with the means test playing the critical role in determining whether or not an income need arises as a consequence of a particular contingency – be that illness, disability, unemployment or caring. 

The continued application of the means test not only ensures that the recipient has a verifiable income need but that resources are targeted to those with greatest need.

Based on the number of persons with a sight related disability (blindness or a serious visual impairment) identified as part of Census 2016 (54,810) it is estimated that a universal (non-means tested) Blind Pension payment could cost up to €580 million in total per annum.  While census figures are based on a person self-identifying as having a sight-related disability - unlike the Blind Pension which is subject to a medical assessment -  it is also worth noting that the estimated cost does not include the cost of secondary benefits that would arise.