Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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232. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the broad review her Department is undertaking of means testing; if any findings, provisional or otherwise, can be made available; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42204/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Means tests and income thresholds are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. In particular, I have introduced a number of changes to means testing which provide for higher income disregards. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, a certain level of income from that work is not assessed in the means test.

I initiated a review of means testing in the Department. The Department has over 90 schemes and a significant number are means tested schemes, each with their own means test.

The purpose of the review of means testing is to look at the different means tested schemes and to identify any issues in terms of the application of their respective means test. This is complex and detailed work but the review is currently being finalised and will be presented to me shortly.

While the review is being finalised some of the initial findings of the review did inform my thinking in the context of the social welfare Budget package. That is why I once again increased the income disregards for single people to €625 per week and couples to €1,250 per week for the Carer’s Allowance.

I also was keen to address the issue of the amount disregarded when a recipient of non-contributory State Pension, Blind Pension or Disability Allowance sells their home and moves into care. The income disregard is currently €190,500 and I am glad that as part of Budget 2025 I was able to increase this to €337,500 to reflect the current average cost of a house in Ireland.

Means testing is complex and detailed analysis has to be undertaken to accurately estimate the impact from an inflow and cost perspective of any potential changes.

The Department keeps means tests under regular review and there have been significant changes across a range of schemes in this area in recent years. I am determined that the Means Review will therefore inform future decisions in this regard.