Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 Schedule 3 Part 2

Means testing - Jobseeker's allowance, pre-retirement allowance, disability allowance and farm assist

Schedule 3 Part 2 sets out the rules for calculating a person's financial means when assessing eligibility for jobseeker's allowance, pre-retirement allowance, disability allowance and farm assist.

• Assessable means include the weekly value of property (invested or capable of investment), all expected cash and non-cash income, benefits from personal use of assets, and any income or property deliberately given away to qualify for payments.
• Numerous income sources are excluded from the calculation, including maintenance payments (subject to limits), earnings from employment (with prescribed disregards), income from agri-environmental schemes up to €5,000 plus half the excess, and seaweed harvesting income up to €1,270 for farm assist.
• For disability allowance, the proceeds from selling the claimant's main residence are disregarded (subject to conditions), but any investment returns on those proceeds remain assessable.
• Incentive payments under the special career break scheme are always counted as means, regardless of the usual exclusions for earned income.