Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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970.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the €20,000 cap for scholarship income for the purpose of claiming disability allowance (DA) will be revised in line with Irish Research Council stipends; and if the cap of ‘scholarships of up to €20,000’ should be read as indicating that funding in excess of €20,000 is counted as means, or if scholarships in excess of €20,000 are counted as means in their entirety, for the purposes of claiming DA.[34745/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides a suite of income supports for those unable to work due to illness or disability. These include insurance-based schemes, based on Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contributions, and means-tested social assistance schemes.

Disability Allowance is a means tested social assistance scheme, which is also subject to a medical assessment and habitual residency requirement.

My Department seeks to support persons in receipt of Disability Allowance to pursue educational or training opportunities and as a result, a number of disregards are in place.

There are a number of scholarships, such as those awarded by certain charitable organisations, which are not assessed as part of the means test for any social welfare payment.

I introduced a PhD disregard effective from 2021, for persons in receipt of Disability Allowance and from 2022 for persons in receipt of Blind Pension who have been granted a bursary, stipend or scholarship towards completing a PhD. An annual disregard of €20,000 was introduced with the disregard available for a maximum of four years.

Any income in excess of the disregard of €20,000 will be assessed as means for the purposes of claiming Disability Allowance and Blind Pension.

A review of means testing in the Department is underway. The outcome of the review will be used to inform decisions regarding any further changes to means testing. Any changes to means testing arrangements will have to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.