Means test for Jobseeker's Allowance

To qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) you must satisfy a mean test. In a means test the Department of Social Protection examines all your sources of income to test if they fall below a certain level. If they fall below that level you will get Jobseeker’s Allowance. The amount of Jobseeker’s Allowance you get depends on your income level.

In the means test for Jobseeker’s Allowance your household income is assessed. If you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabitating, the means of your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant are also taken into account. 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 an income disregard.

The means test for Jobseeker’s Allowance 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 (including income from work)
• Property personally used
• Capital (savings and investments) and property not personally used
• Benefit and privilege from living with your parents.

The means test assesses all cash income that you expect to get in the forthcoming year. If it is not possible to estimate your income over the next 12 months, it is usually based on the income you actually received in the previous year.

Among the cash income that is assessed is:

• Income from self-employment
• Income from employment
• Farm income
• Income from a social security pension from another country
• Income from maintenance, for example, if you are separated.

Most social welfare payments are not taken into account. The maintenance grant provided under the Student Grant Scheme is also not taken into account as means. Find out more about cash income not included in the means test.

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 but the capital value of your home is not.

Capital includes property (not your home), savings and investments.

If you own property (excluding your home) or you have investments or any other form of capital, the value is assessed using a standard formula (see below), whether or not you are getting an income from the property or investment. If property is rented you will not be assessed on the actual income from the letting. Any outstanding mortgage registered against the property is deducted from the market value to find the capital value.

The property and investments that may be assessed include savings in a bank account (or anywhere else), a house that you have let and stocks and shares. If you or your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant 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 formula for assessing the value of capital including property (but not your own home), savings and investments is as follows:

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 24 years of age or under and you are living with a parent or a step-parent in the family home, some of your parents' income will also be taken into account in the assessment for Jobseeker's Allowance.

This is called an assessment of the benefit and privilege you get from living with your parents. More information is available on how benefit and privilege is assessed in the means test.

To find your total means, your means under the various headings (for example, cash income, employment, capital, benefit and privilege) are added together. If you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting and your partner started a Community Employment (CE) scheme (in 2023) or is getting a social welfare payment in their own right, your means may be halved - see ‘Couples’ below.

Your total household means is then deducted from the maximum payment for your situation (see below) to find the actual amount of Jobseeker’s Allowance you are entitled to.

Maximum payment for your situation

The maximum payment for your situation is the maximum personal rate of Jobseeker's Allowance including any increases for adult and child dependants. However, if you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is getting a social welfare payment in their own right, your joint means are halved. The maximum payment for your situation will not include an increase for an adult dependant and will only include half-rate increases for your child dependants - see 'Couples' below.

CE and maximum payment

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant start a CE scheme in 2023, your joint means are halved. The maximum payment for your situation will not include an increase for an adult dependant. It will include full rate increases for your child dependants.

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant started their CE scheme before 1 January 2023, your maximum payment for your situation will include an increase for an adult dependant and any child dependents. In this case, the CE income is assessed as part-time work.

Age and maximum payment

Your age can also determine the maximum payment for your situation. More information on the JA rate for people under 25 can be found in our document on Jobseeker's Allowance.

Couples

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant has a social welfare payment in their own right (except Child Benefit, Disablement Pension, guardian's payments, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Domiciliary Care Allowance or half-rate Carer's Allowance) or is on a Further Education and Training (FET) or VTOS course and getting a payment in their own right you cannot claim an Increase for a Qualified Adult for them.

This means that the maximum you can be paid is the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment for a single person plus a half-rate allowance for each qualified child. (Your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant will get a half-rate payment for each qualified child with their payment.)

In addition only 50% of your combined means are taken into account in the means test for your Jobseeker’s Allowance - in other words your combined means are halved. (The other half will be taken into account in the means test for your partner's payment if your partner is getting a means-tested payment.)

Community Employment

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant start a CE scheme in 2023, your joint means are halved. The maximum payment for your situation will not include an increase for an adult dependant. It will include full rate increases for your child dependants.

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant started their CE scheme before 1 January 2023, your maximum payment for your situation will include an increase for an adult dependant and any child dependents. Joint means are not halved and CE income is assessed as part-time work.

Limitation

However, if you are claiming Jobseeker's Allowance and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is getting one of the social welfare payments listed below, the total amount paid to you as a couple cannot be more than the maximum amount that would be paid to one person (including adult and child dependants) on one social welfare payment. If a couple are both claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in their own right the rate paid to each person is half of the family rate. If one or both of the couple is aged under 25, each person is paid half of the family rate that would apply to them individually.

• 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
• Farm Assist (FA)

You can also find more information in the Department of Social Protection’s Operational Guidelines about:

• Cash income as means
• Property as means
• Means of a couple
• Other pensions as means
• Farm means