Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
470. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection if a person (details supplied) is eligible for the supplementary welfare allowance or another welfare payment; and the basis for a previous refusal of an application for same. [6601/22]
View answerSocial Welfare legislation provides that subject to certain disregards, all income and property belonging to an applicant (and his or her spouse/partner, where applicable) is assessable for means testing purposes for social assistance schemes such as Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) and Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA).
The person concerned has made several applications for JA; the most recent was made in July 2021. The person concerned was assessed with weekly means of €430 derived from the capital value of a property she declared she owns and where she does not normally reside. The property is valued at €140,000. Property which is not personally used by a claimant is assessed on the capital value of the property. As the person concerned does not reside in the property, it cannot be considered as property personally used by her and therefore has to be considered in assessing her means.
Means on the property’s capital value of €140,000 were calculated as follows:
Disregard the first €20k – Nil = Nil
€20k to €30k - €1 per €1,000 = €10 weekly means
€30k to €40k - €2 per €1,000 = €20 weekly means
€40k to €140k - €4 per €1,000 = €400 weekly means
As the weekly means calculated are greater than the rate of JA payable for a person of her circumstances, the JA claim for the person concerned was disallowed.
The person concerned applied for SWA on 14/12/2020 and as this is also a means-tested payment her claim was disallowed.
Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my Department can make a single Exceptional Needs Payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. There is no automatic entitlement to these payments which are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, considering the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case. The person concerned made several applications for ENPs in 2021 and was awarded 3 ENPs for a total of €800. She also made a ENP application on 05/01/2022 and received a payment of €300 on 07/01/2022.
I trust this clarifies the matter.
