Vol. 398 No. 10
141 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will outline the position of persons in receipt of unemployment assistance who win relatively small amounts of money in the national lottery and the way in which this affects their entitlements; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Section 146 (1) (a) of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981, as amended, governs the assessment of property in calculating means for unemployment assistance purposes. Property for this purpose includes money, whether invested or not, belonging to the claimant or his spouse.
In accordance with this provision, any increase in the amount of money belonging to an applicant or his spouse, irrespective of its source, would in the normal way be assessable as means in a manner prescribed.
However, increases of relatively small amounts of money — whether fortuitously derived from small national lottery wins or otherwise — would generally be spent within a short time and accordingly would not normally give rise to a change of means.
