Social Welfare (No. 2) Act, 1985

Calculation of means.

13.—The Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for section 146 thereof of the following section—

“Calculation of means.

146.—(1) In the calculation of the means of a person for the purposes of this Chapter, the following things and no other things shall be deemed to constitute the means of a person—

(a) the yearly value ascertained in the prescribed manner of all property belonging to him or to his spouse (not being property personally used or enjoyed by him or by his spouse or a farm of land leased either by him or by his spouse under a lease which has been certified by the Irish Land Commission to be bona fide and in accordance with sound land use practice) which is invested or otherwise put to profitable use or is capable of being, but is not, invested or put to profitable use;

(b) all income which he or his spouse may reasonably expect to receive during the succeeding year in cash, whether as contributions to the expenses of the household or otherwise, but excluding—

(i) any income or money coming within any other paragraph of this subsection,

(ii) all moneys earned by him or by his spouse in respect of current personal employment under a contract of service,

(iii) any moneys received by way of unemployment assistance under this Chapter,

(iv) any moneys received by way of supplementary welfare allowance,

(v) any moneys received by way of disability benefit, unemployment benefit, maternity benefit, children's allowance or family income supplement,

(vi) any income arising from a bonus under a scheme administered by the Minister for the Gaeltacht for the making of special grants to parents or guardians resident in the Gaeltacht or Breac-Ghaeltacht (as defined in such scheme) of children attending primary schools,

(vii) an amount of an allowance, dependant's allowance (not being a dependant's allowance to which paragraph (viii) relates), disability pension or wound pension under the Army Pensions Acts, 1923 to 1980, or a combination of such allowances and such pensions so far as such amount does not exceed £80 per year,

(viii) a dependant's allowance under the Army Pensions Acts, 1923 to 1980, arising out of service in the period from the 23rd day of April, 1916, to the 30th day of September, 1923,

(ix) any moneys received by way of training allowance from an organisation while undergoing a course of rehabilitation training provided by the organisation (being an organisation approved of by the Minister for Health for the purposes of the provision of such training),

(x) any moneys, except so far as they exceed £104 per year, received by such person or by the spouse of such person in respect of work of the kind referred to in paragraph 7 of Part I of the First Schedule, under a scheme that is, in the opinion of the Minister, charitable in character and purpose,

(xi) where he or his spouse is engaged on a seasonal basis in the occupation of fishing, one-half of so much of the income derived therefrom as does not exceed £120 per year and one-third of so much of such income as exceeds £120 per year but does not exceed £300 per year,

(xii) any moneys received under a statutory scheme administered by the Minister for Labour in respect of redundancy or by way of financial assistance to unemployed persons changing residence;

(c) the yearly value ascertained in the prescribed manner of any advantage accruing to him or to his spouse from—

(i) the use of property (other than a domestic dwelling or farm building owned and occupied, furniture and personal effects) which is personally used or enjoyed by him or by his spouse, and

(ii) the leasing by him or by his spouse of a farm of land under a lease which has been certified by the Irish Land Commission to be bona fide and in accordance with sound land use practice;

(d) all income and the yearly value ascertained in the prescribed manner of all property of which he or his spouse have directly or indirectly deprived themselves in order to qualify for the receipt of unemployment assistance;

(e) the yearly value of any benefit or privilege enjoyed by him or by his spouse, including the estimated value to the household in the succeeding year deriving from all income earned by his spouse in respect of current personal employment under a contract of service.

(2) For the purposes of subsections (1) (b) and (1) (e), the income of a person shall, in the absence of other means of ascertaining it, be taken to be the income actually received during the year immediately preceding the date of calculation.

(3) For the purposes of this section, ‘spouse’, in relation to a person, means a spouse who is living with, and not apart from, that person.”.