Means test (2024)

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What is the means test?

To qualify for a social assistance payment, you must be habitually resident in Ireland and pass a ‘means test’.

In the means test, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) checks:

• If you have enough financial resources to support yourself, and
• What amount of social assistance payment, if any, you may qualify for.

To do this, the DSP looks at all your sources of income. Depending on the payment you’re applying for, the DSP may disregard (not take into account):

• A certain amount of your income, or
• Income from certain sources.

This page gives a general overview of the means test. However, the way your weekly means is calculated, and the amount you can have, varies from payment to payment.

How is the means test carried out?

When you apply for a social assistance (means-tested) payment, you must include details of all sources of income. The form will say which supporting documents you need to submit, if any.

Do I give details of my bank account?

The Department of Social Protection (DSP) can ask you for details of your bank accounts, including the account numbers. However, the DSP does not access your bank account unless you give permission.

Will the DSP come to my home?

Usually, it is not necessary to come visit you at home when deciding on your application. However, a social welfare Inspector may ask to visit you at home to discuss your application and supporting documents.

Who decides if I qualify for a payment?

Staff at the Department of Social Protection (DSP) will decide on your application. They will look at all your sources of income and decide what income, if any, can be disregarded (not taken into account).

You will be told how your means were assessed.

The means test for a social assistance payment can be a complex calculation, and it can differ from payment to payment. You can find information below about what the DSP looks at in the means test.

What if I’m not happy with the decision?

If you are refused a social assistance payment and you are not satisfied, you can appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

Changes in your circ*mstances

When you have been awarded a social welfare payment, you must tell the DSP about any changes in your circ*mstances. If you do not, you may be fined or asked to repay any overpayment that may have occurred.

Read more about the means test on gov.ie.

Social insurance payments and increases for dependants

If you apply for a social insurance payment (based on your PRSI contributions), you do not have to pass a means test.

However, if you apply for an increase in your payment for an adult dependant (also called a qualified adult) or child dependants (qualified children), then your spouse’s, civil partner’s, or cohabitant’s means will be assessed.

While your means are not taken into account, the DSP will assess any means you hold jointly.

How cash income is assessed

In the means test, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) assesses all cash income that you expect to get in the coming year. In practice, this is usually assessed by calculating the income you got in the previous year.

Cash income includes:

• Any income from employment or self-employment
• Farm income
• Income from a social security pension from another country
• Maintenance payments for you (maintenance for a child is not included in the means test for social welfare payments).

Payments made to you by the DSP are not taken into account.

You can read about what cash income not included in the means test.

How income from employment is assessed

How your income from employment or self-employment is assessed depends on the payment you are applying for. When the DSP assesses your income from employment, it does not include:

• PRSI
• Union dues
• Superannuation or pension contributions

If you are self-employed, the DSP disregards:

• PRSI (Class S)
• All expenses directly related to your self-employment. However, drawings (money taken from the business for personal use), is assessed as means.

Income tax and USC

Usually, income tax or the Universal Social Charge (USC) are not deducted from your income from employment. Exceptions include assessments for:

• Working Family Payment
• Benefit and privilege for Jobseeker's Allowance
• Benefit and privilege for Supplementary Welfare Allowance.

Other income disregards

Depending on the payment you’re applying for, the DSP may disregard (not take into account) certain income.

For example, a certain amount of your earnings from work is not taken into account for Disability Allowance and Blind Pension.

There are also additional income disregards for:

• Carer's Allowance
• Rent Supplement
• State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• One-Parent Family Payment.

The assessment of income from employment for Jobseeker's Allowance is a little more complex. Find more information in our page, Work and Jobseeker's Allowance.

How income from maintenance is assessed

For most social welfare payments, the DSP assesses income from maintenance as means. However, since 4 June 2024, child maintenance payments are not included in the means test for any social welfare payment.

The DSP also assesses any maintenance paid to your spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant. See ‘Assessing the means of a couple’ below.

However, rent or mortgage payments of up to €95.23 per week can be offset against maintenance payments. You can read more about Maintenance and social welfare payments.

How income from farming is assessed

If you or your spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant are getting income from working a farm, the DSP assesses the yearly value to you (this is gross income minus expenses). If the land is worked but is not being worked to its potential, then they will make an estimate of the potential net yearly value.

If you are leasing a farm you own, your rental income is assessed.

If you are not working or leasing a farm, the capital value of your land is assessed.

How property you live in (your home) is assessed

The house in which you live is not included in the means test, unless you are getting an income from it.

Income from rent

If you rent out a room in your home, the DSP assesses any rental income over €14,000 per year.

This income disregard also applies if you:

• Move out of your home under the Fair Deal Scheme, or
• Live in a Local Authority home and rent a room to a student under the Room for a Student Local Authority Scheme

You should check if renting a room in your home will affect any other payments you are getting, such as Fuel Allowance.

Rules for the rent income disregard

The maximum income disregard is €269.23 a week (€14,000 per year). The person renting a room in your home must use the room for a minimum of 28 consecutive days.

The income disregard will not apply if you are renting to an employee or your immediate family members.

Immediate family members are:

• Your spouse, civil partner or partner
• Your child, or the spouse of your child
• Your parent, step-parent or parent-in-law
• Your sibling, including step-siblings or siblings-in-law
• Your grandparent or your grandchild
• Your aunt or uncle
• Your nephew or niece

If you get a non-contributory pension

The DSP does not assess any income from rent over €14,000 per year if you would otherwise be living alone, and you are getting either:

• A State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• A Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension.

If you rent part of your home but don’t qualify for the disregard

If you rent part of your home and do not qualify for the rent income disregard above, the DSP allows for some deductions from your rental income, such as wear and tear. You cannot get these deductions if you are getting the rental income disregard.

If you host people from Ukraine

The Accommodation Recognition Payment for hosting refugees from Ukraine is not assessed in the means test for a weekly social assistance payment, Supplementary Welfare Allowance or Working Family Payment.

Selling your home

If you sell your home, the proceeds of the sale are normally taken into account.

However, the first €190,500 of the sale proceeds is not taken into account if you get certain payments and sell your house to:

• Buy or rent more suitable alternative accommodation
• Move into a nursing home
• Move in with a person who is getting Carer's Allowance for you

This exemption only applies if you are getting one of the following payments:

• State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension (if you are aged 66 or over)
• One-Parent Family Payment (if you are aged 66 years or over)
• Disability Allowance
• Blind Pension

Read more about how proceeds from the sale of your home are assessed.

How capital and property not personally used is assessed

Capital includes:

• Property (except for your own home)
• Savings
• Investments.

If you (or your spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant) own property that you are not personally using, or if you have investments or any other form of capital, the DSP assessed the value using a standard formula.

In general, it doesn’t matter whether you get an income from the property or investment. The only exception to this is where an Increase for a Qualified Adult is being assessed for a social insurance payment. In this case, if you let the property, the DSP assesses the rental income rather than the capital value.

The property and investments that may be assessed as capital include:

• Savings in a bank account (or anywhere else)
• A house that you have let (rented out)
• 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.

How the DSP assesses your capital

The DSP uses the following standard formula to assess the value of capital for all social welfare payments (except Disability Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, and Supplementary Welfare Allowance):

For Disability Allowance and Carer's Allowance, the first €50,000 of capital is not taken into account.

For Supplementary Welfare Allowance, the first €5,000 of capital is not taken into account.

Capital is not assessed in the means test for Working Family Payment.

Find more information in our page, Capital and social welfare payments.

Calculating your total weekly means

Your means from cash income, employment, and capital are added together to find your total weekly means. Depending on the payment you’re applying for, the DSP will disregard certain income (not take certain income into account).

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 weekly means.

If you are under 25 and applying for Jobseeker’s Allowance or for Supplementary Welfare Allowance, your age can also determine the maximum payment.

Assessing the means of a couple

If you apply for a social assistance or means-tested payment and you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting, the DSP takes the means of your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant into account in the means test.

Read more in our page, Assessing the means of a couple for social assistance payments.

More information

If you have questions about the means test, you can contact the section in the Department of Social Protection (DSP) that pays the payment you‘re applying for.

You can also find information on Gov.ie about assessing:

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

Or, contact your local Citizens Information Centre for advice.