Means test
- Introduction
- Cash income
- Property personally used (your home)
- Capital and property not personally used
- Total means
Introduction
To qualify for a social assistance payment you must satisfy a means test and a habitual residence test. A means test is when the Department of Social Protection examines all your sources of income to test if they fall below a certain level. If you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabitating, the means of your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant are also taken into account when you apply for a social assistance payment.
How your means is calculated and the amount of means you are allowed to have varies from payment to payment. Sometimes a certain amount of income or income from particular sources is not taken into account. Income not taken into account is often referred to as income disregards.
If you are getting a social insurance payment, you do not have to satisfy a means test. However, your spouse's, civil partner's or cohabitant's income can affect increases in your payment for an adult dependant or child dependant. In the case of social insurance payments, where capital is held jointly by you and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, half of the value is assessed as belonging to your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant and assessed in the means test for an Increase for a Qualified Adult or an Increase for a Qualified Child.
The means test for a social assistance payment can be a complex calculation, here we look at some of the general items that are taken into account in the means test.
The means test examines the following types of income:
- Cash income
- Property personally used
- Capital (savings and investments) and property not personally used
Cash income
The means test assesses all cash income that you expect to get in the forthcoming year. In practice, this is usually assessed by calculating the income you actually received in the previous year. Among the cash income that is assessed is any income from employment or self-employment, including farm income, income from a social security pension from another country and maintenance.
Most social welfare and Health Service Executive (HSE) payments are not taken into account, for example, Child Benefit, Disablement Pension and Domiciliary Care Allowance. More information about cash income not included in the means test is available in our document Cash income and social welfare payments.
However, if one of a couple is claiming Jobseeker's Allowance and the other is getting of one of the social welfare payments listed below, the total amount paid to the couple cannot exceed the maximum amount paid to one person (including dependants) on one social welfare payment. You can choose the higher-rate payment as the primary payment.
- Illness Benefit
- Disablement Pension (when paid with Illness Benefit or Incapacity Supplement)
- Injury Benefit
- Invalidity Pension
- State Pension (Non-Contributory)
- State Pension (Contributory)
- State Pension (Transition)
- Jobseeker's Benefit
- Jobseeker's Allowance
- Pre-Retirement Allowance
- Farm Assist
Income from employment:
How your income from employment or self employment is assessed depends on the payment you are getting. When assessing your income from employment the following are always deducted from your gross earnings:
- PRSI
- Union dues
- Superannuation or contribution to a pension fund
In the case of self-employment:
- PRSI (Class S)
- All expenses directly related to your self-employment. However, drawings or money taken from the business for personal use is assessed as means.
Income tax or Universal Social Charge is not usually deducted from your income from employment, except in the assessment of Family Income Supplement and in the assessment of benefit and privilege for Jobseeker's Allowance and benefit and privilege for Supplementary Welfare Allowance.
There are additional income disregards for individual payments. For example: €120 per week of rehabilitative earnings is not taken into account for Disability Allowance and Blind Pension. There are also additional income disregards for Carer's Allowance, Rent Supplement, Pre-Retirement Allowance, State Pension (Non-Contributory) and One-Parent Family Payment.
The assessment of income from employment for Jobseeker's Allowance is a little more complex. More information is available in our document Work and Jobseeker's Allowance.
Income from working as a home-help may not be taken into account in the means test for certain social welfare payments. It was announced in Budget 2012 that income from working as a home help will be taken into account in means tests from 2012.
Property personally used (your home)
The house in which you live is not included in the assessment of your means unless you are getting an income from it. If you have rented a room in the house, that income is assessed. However, if you are getting a State Pension (Non-Contributory) or a Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension and not renting the room means that you would be living alone, the income is not assessed at all.
If you sell your home, the proceeds of the sale would normally be taken into account. However, if you are getting one of the following payments and you sell your house in order to buy or rent more suitable alternative accommodation or to go into a nursing home or to move in with a person who is getting Carer's Allowance for you, the first €190,460.71 of the sale proceeds is not taken into account.
- State Pension (Non-Contributory)
- Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension (if you are 66 years of age or over)
- One-Parent Family Payment (if you are 66 years of age or over)
- Disability Allowance
- Blind Pension
Capital and property not personally used
Capital includes property (except for your own home), savings and investments. If you own property that you are not personally using or you have investments or any other form of capital, the value is assessed, using a standard formula. You may or may not be getting an income from the property or investment.
The property and investments that may be assessed under this heading include savings in a bank account (or anywhere else), a house that you have let and stocks and shares. If you or your spouse or partner saves a portion of your social welfare payment each week, these savings as well as savings from most other sources will be taken into account as part of your means.
The standard formula for assessing the value for all social welfare payments (except Disability Allowance and Supplementary Welfare Allowance) is as follows:
| Capital | Weekly means assessed |
| First €20,000 | Nil |
| Next €10,000 | €1 per €1,000 |
| Next €10,000 | €2 per €1,000 |
| Balance | €4 per €1,000 |
More information is available in our document on Capital and social welfare payments.
If you have a joint account with your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, legally the total amount in the account is owned by each of you. Therefore it can be assessed in full against each of you. However, if you are both getting means-tested payments it will be assessed on a shared basis or against only one of you.
If you are one of a couple and apply for State Pension (Non-Contributory), Blind Pension or Carer's Allowance your combined capital is halved and this lower amount is assessed using the formula above. After you apply the formula the resulting amount is doubled to get your means from capital.
| Example |
John has €20,000 savings and his wife Mary has €20,000 savings, thay also have a joint account with €10,000. Mary has applied for Carer's Allowance. €20,000 + €20,000 + €10,000 = €50,000 €50,000 ÷ 2 = €25,000 €25,000 assessed using the formula above = €5 €5 x 2 = €10 John and Mary's weekly capital means is assessed as €10 (At the end of the means calculation all Mary and John's sources of income will be added together to get the couple's total means. This figure will then be halved to see whether Mary qualifies for Carer's Allowance.) |
Assessment of direct provision accommodation
For people seeking asylum or leave to remain who are living in direct provision accommodation, the weekly value of direct provision is assessed as means. In 2012 direct provision is assessed as follows:
Claimant - €166.90
Adult dependant - €105.70
Child dependant - €20.20 (per child)
The current weekly value of direct provision was set by the Health Service
Executive (HSE). It is based on the appropriate maximum Supplementary Welfare
Allowance rate less €19.10 for an adult and €9.60 for a child.
Total means
Your means under the various headings (for example, cash income, employment and capital) are added together to find your total means. Your means may be halved if you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabitating - see 'Assessing a couple's means' below. For most means-tested payments, the rate of social welfare payment you can get, if any, is reduced on a sliding scale according to your means.
However, if you are applying for or getting JA, Preta, FA or DA, your total weekly means is subtracted from the maximum weekly rate of Allowance for your situation to find out how much you will get.
If you are under 25 and applying for JA your age can also determine the maximum payment for your situation.
Assessing a couple's means
In certain circumstances only half of a couple's combined means is taken into account when they are being assessed for a social welfare payment.
Means from capital
If you are one of a couple and apply for State Pension (Non-Contributory), Blind Pension or Carer's Allowance your combined capital is halved and this lower amount is assessed using the standard formula. The resulting amount is doubled to get your means from capital - see 'Capital' above.
Total means
In general, if you are one of a couple then your means are taken to be half of the total means of yourself and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant.
However, if you are getting Jobseeker's Allowance, Disability Allowance, Pre-Retirement Allowance or Farm Assist your means are halved only if your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is getting a social welfare payment (except Child Benefit, Disablement Pension, Domiciliary Care Allowance, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, half-rate Carer's Allowance or a guardian's payment), or on a FAS or VTOS course and getting an allowance in his/her own right.
To find the actual amount of JA, PRETA, FA or DA you will get, your total household means is deducted from the maximum payment (usually this is the personal rate including any increases for adult and child dependants). If your means are halved, you will not get an increase for a qualified adult but you will get a half-rate increase for each qualified child. More information can be found in our document on the means test for Jobseeker's Allowance.
Additional information
Contact the section in the Department of Social Protection that pays the payment you are applying for.
You can also find more information in the Department's Freedom of Information guidelines about:
Language
Useful Resources
Related Documents
- Means test for Jobseeker's Allowance
To get Jobseeker's Allowance you must satisfy a means test. A means test examines all your sources of income. However, some income is not taken into account in the calculation of your means. - Cash income and social welfare payments
This document lists the income from cash not included in the means test for social welfare payments. - State Pension (Non-Contributory)
The State Pension (Non-Contributory) previously called the Old Age Non-Contributory Pension is a means-tested payment available to people in Ireland aged 66 and over who do not qualify for a contributory pension.
Contact Us
If you have a question relating to this topic you can contact the Citizens Information Phone Service on 0761 07 4000 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 9pm) or you can visit your local Citizens Information Centre.