Seán Sherlock
Question:575. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide the list of disregards available to those with a disability in respect of their social welfare benefits. [52049/21]
View answerTuesday, 2 November 2021
Questions (575)
Written answers
The Department provides social insurance and social assistance payments. Eligibility for social insurance payments is based on Pay Related Social Insurance contributions and social assistance payments are means-tested.
The assessment of means 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. 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.
The two long-term disability payments where a means test and disregards apply are the Disability Allowance (DA) and the Blind Pension (BP).
DA is the Department’s largest disability related payment with some 154,000 persons in receipt of DA as of August 2021. It is payable to persons between the ages of 16 and 66 with a specified disability which is expected to last at least 1 year, and who by reason of that disability, are substantially restricted in undertaking work.
BP is a small scheme with 1,047 recipients as of August 2021. BP is paid to blind people and certain people with low vision, aged between 18 and 66.
Cash/income that is assessed as part of the means test includes any income from employment or self-employment (and that of their spouse/partner, if applicable), income from a social security pension from another country and maintenance payments.
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. Property personally used / the claimant’s home is never assessed as part of the means test, regardless of who is the legal owner.
Both DA and BP have been designed to support persons to pursue their employment ambitions, be that self-employment or insurable employment. The income disregards for the DA and BP allow claimants to earn up to €140 per week from employment or self-employment without their payment being affected.
The capital disregard allows for people to have capital to a certain level without their payment being affected. The tables below set out the formula used for determining weekly means from capital for DA and BP.
Table: Weekly means formula for capital, Disability Allowance
|
Formula |
Weekly Means |
|
First €50,000 |
Nil |
|
Next €10,000 |
€1 per €1,000 |
|
Next €10,000 |
€2 per €1,000 |
|
Excess of €70,000 |
€4 per €1,000 |
Table: Weekly means formula for capital, Blind Pension
|
Formula |
Weekly means |
|
First €20,000 |
Nil |
|
Next €10,000 |
€1.00 per €1,000 |
|
Next €10,000 |
€2.00 per €1,000 |
|
Excess of €40,000 |
€4 per €1,000 |
Earlier this year, a new income disregard was introduced for Disability Allowance recipients who have been granted bursaries, stipends or scholarships towards completing a PhD. The disregard has been designed so that a person may receive funding of up to €20,000 per annum (i.e. if a recipient gets more than one bursary, the combination cannot exceed €20,000) without impacting on their payment. This disregard is available for a maximum of four years. Budget 2022 saw the eligibility for this disregard expanded to recipients of the Blind Pension from January 2022.
It should be noted that social welfare legislation also provides for the disregard of certain compensation awards when assessing the means of a person. These disregards include, for example, all income derived from compensation awarded by the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and in relation to disability caused by Thalidomide. Any payment made by the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board is also disregarded for social welfare means test purposes. In addition, ex gratia payments made to women who were admitted to and worked in the Magdalen Laundries, or through the Symphysiotomy Payment Scheme, or payments made by the Minister of Health in accordance with recommendations proposed by the Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme are also disregarded.
I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.