Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will prioritise the right of homeowners in nursing homes to rent out their vacant homes without it affecting their non-contributory pension entitlements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15137/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Non-contributory pension is a payment to people over 66 whose entitlements is based on a means test. All means tests in my Department are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. Last year I announced a series of measures designed to remove barriers facing social welfare customers who choose to accommodate people in their homes.

In July 2022 I signed legislation which introduced a disregard of up to €269.23 per week in respect of income from renting a room in their own home. This disregard means that a social welfare customer will be able to rent out a room in their home for up to €14,000 per annum and this income will not see their means-tested social welfare payment impacted.

I introduced this regulation with the aim of removing any means disincentive for people letting out a room in their home for fear that it would impact their social welfare payment and I am pleased that Government has recently approved the extension of this disregard for a further two years.

I am aware that the Minister for Health introduced changes to the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (NHSS), commonly referred to as Fair Deal, last November, which reduced the rate of assessment on rental income in respect of that scheme. I understand that the effect of these changes are being currently reviewed.

Officials in my Department are liaising with officials in the Department of Health as part of this review. Means testing and disregards will form part of this discussion, but any changes in relation to means testing will have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary arithmetic.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.