Calculating Rent Supplement

Step 2: Subtract income disregards

Subtract any income not taken into account in the assessment for Rent Supplement. Income not taken into account is also known as an income disregard.

Main income disregards

The following items are not taken into account as income for calculating Rent Supplement:

• Child Benefit
• Mobility Allowance
• Foster care payments from the Health Service Executive
• Payments for accommodating children under the Child Care Act
• Income from Gaeltacht students
• Grants or allowances from schemes promoting the welfare of blind people
• Money received from charitable organisations, for example, St Vincent de Paul
• Compensation awarded by the Compensation Tribunal in respect of Hepatitis C contracted from certain blood products, to those who have disabilities caused by Thalidomide and to those receiving compensation under the Residential Institutions Redress Board
• Maintenance grants paid by VEC or Local Authorities for educational purposes
• Domiciliary Care Allowance
• If you are aged 65 or over (or where one of a couple is of pensionable age) and have a combined household income greater than the rate of Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) appropriate to your household circumstances, you are allowed a disregard equal to the difference between the maximum rate of State Pension (Contributory) appropriate to your circumstance and the rate of SWA appropriate to your circumstances.
• Half-rate Carer's Allowance
• If you are getting the standard Carer's Allowance, the amount of Carer's Allowance above the appropriate SWA rate for your situation (either the adult dependent rate for a couple or the personal rate for a single person) is not taken into account.
• Carer's Benefit in excess of the basic SWA rate for your situation (either the adult dependent rate for a couple or the personal rate for a single person) is not taken into account.
• Respite Care Grant
• Guardian's Payment (Contributory) and Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory)

Income from working as a home help with the HSE used to be disregarded for all social assistance payments but from January 2012 this income is taken into account.

Additional Household Income Disregard

Additional Household Income Disregard is a certain amount of your household income which is not taken into account. €75 of any additional household income is not taken into account. Also, 25% of your additional household income over €75 is not taken into account. There is no upper limit on the amount that can be disregarded.

Additional Household Income includes income from the following:

• Part-time employment or part-time self employment (under 30 hours per week)
• Full-time employment or full-time self employment (30 hours or over per week) where the claimant had been out of full-time employment for 12 months or more and is accepted as in need of accommodation under the Rental Accommodation Scheme.
• Any employment or training scheme, for example, Community Employment, Back to Work Allowance, Back to Work Enterprise Allowance or FÁS course
• Family Income Supplement
• Maintenance payments over €95.23.

To calculate the Additional Household Income Disregard:

Additional household income
Less approriate SWA rate - see Step 3 below
Less €75
Less 25% of any income you have after you have subtracted €75

Rehabilitative Earnings Disregard

If you are working and getting Disability Allowance or Blind Pension you can either use the Rehabilitative Earnings Disregard or the Household Income Disregard (but not both). Use whichever is in your interest.

Rehabilitative Earnings Disregard is a certain amount of your income from rehabilitative work which is not taken into account. €120 from rehabilitative training or employment is not taken into account in the assessment for Rent Supplement. All earnings over €120 from rehabilitative training or employment are taken into account and will affect your Rent Supplement.