Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The State Pension (Non-Contributory) is a payment made to people aged over 66 whose entitlement 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.

In 2022, I announced a series of measures designed to remove barriers facing social welfare customers who choose to accommodate people in their homes, including the introduction of 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 can 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.

Government has approved the extension of this disregard for a further two years until March 2025.

Following discussions between officials in my Department, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Department of Health, I am happy to say that I recently signed regulations, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, which extends the circumstances whereby a person can rent out a room in their home while availing of this rent a room disregard.

These regulations extend the applicability of the rent a room disregard to encompass people who have left their home under the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Fair Deal), and also to Local Authority tenants who rent out a room to a student under the “Room for a Student – Local Authority Scheme”.

Any queries relating to tax issues which may arise are a matter for the Minister for Finance and the Revenue Commissioners.