JSA: means test:Savings

peppy007

I saw on the citizens information website that a single person is allowed to have €20,000 in savings without it affecting their means.

If a couple is being means tested, does this mean they are allowed €40,000 or how does it work?

Thanks.

cee_jay

No any savings over 20000 will be assessed as capital.
If you are assessed as a couple, the weekly rate is 196 for yourself, and an increase for the adult dependent of 130.10. The means is then deducted from this total amount.

peppy007

cAr0l wrote: »

No any savings over 20000 will be assessed as capital.
If you are assessed as a couple, the weekly rate is 196 for yourself, and an increase for the adult dependent of 130.10. The means is then deducted from this total amount.

:eek:so a single person may have 20 grand without it being assessed as capital, but a couple(both of whom are on JSA) that have savings of say 11 grand each, 2 grand of this will be assessed? That hardly makes sense..

edit: taken from citizens information site:

If you have a joint account with your spouse or partner, 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 both you and your spouse or partner are getting means-tested payments it will be assessed on a shared basis or against only one of you.

Married and cohabiting couples

Your means are halved if your spouse or partner is:

* Getting a social welfare payment

If your means are halved, you will not get an increase for a qualified adult but you will get a half-rate increase for each qualified child.

So, if a couple are bot on JSA (apologies if I didn't make that clear in my OP) their means are halved, so in theory, they could have 40 grand in savings and none of this would count as capital yeah?

But then in the last quote, ''if your means are halved you will not get an increase for a qualified adult'', so then JSA will only be paid @ €196 for the couple before means are deducted? Am I reading this correctly?
Thanks

cee_jay

If both are on JSA then it is different.

From www.welfare.ie

Where both members of a couple are claiming any (or a combination) of the following:

* Jobseeker's Allowance ( JA)
* Farm Assist ( FA)
* Pre-Retirement Allowance ( PRETA)

their combined payments cannot exceed the amount which would be payable if only one person made a claim. Where each would be entitled to a different rate of payment, the higher of the two amounts is the maximum amount which can be paid to the household. The couple will not necessarily receive this amount; it simply means that their combined payments cannot exceed this amount.

Each of the couple shall be entitled to be paid one-half of the amount (including any increases thereof, where appropriate) which would be payable to him or her if only one of them was being paid.

There are, therefore, two steps which should be followed to determine the actual entitlement of each member of the couple :

1. Establishing the maximum amount which can be paid to the couple, and
2. Establishing the amount to be paid to each person.

Step 1:
Establish the maximum amount which can be paid to the couple.
This is done by calculating how much each would receive if only one of them made a claim. These may be different amounts, e.g. because of the way in which means are assessed or because only one of them may be entitled to be paid an increase in respect of a qualified adult or qualified child. Where this is the case, the higher of these two payments shall be the maximum amount which may be paid to the couple.

Note: In calculating the amount which would be paid to either of the couple if only one of them made a claim :

* an Increase (full or reduced) in respect of a Qualified Adult should not be used unless the claimant would actually have an entitlement to such an increase.
* full-rate Qualified Child ( IQC) or half-rate IQC should be used as appropriate to the individual circumstances,
* full or half means should be assessed as appropriate to the individual circumstances.

Step 2:
Establish the amount to be paid to each of the couple when both make a claim (the combined total of which cannot exceed the maximum amount payable).

This is calculated by halving the amount which would be paid to each of them if the other person didn't make a claim (as per Step 1).

As for the assessing of the capital:

Where an account is held jointly with another person, legally the entire asset is owned by each of the parties, and may be assessed in full against each. An exception to this is where the second party is unaware that his or her name has been added to the account.

If both parties are in receipt of, or claiming, means tested payments, the asset should not be assessed in full against both. Depending on any other relevant factors, it should be assessed against both on a shared basis or against one only.

peppy007

Ok so thanks for that.

So, does that then mean if you have a couple, both in receipt of JSA, with absolutely no means apart from €40,000 savings(€20,000each), they will receive the full rate (€196) plus an additional €130.10 for the 2nd qualified adult totalling €326.10?(which is the same amount they would receive if the had absolutely zero means, including zero savings)

thanks.

Xiney

I'm pretty sure a couple can still only have 20 000 in savings.

peppy007

If both are on JSA then it is different

Can you explain how it is different?..i.e in your 1st post you said that the couple can only have a max savings of 20,000 that would be disregarded , so in this case (where both people are receiving JSA) what is different?

From www.welfare.ie

Where both members of a couple are claiming any (or a combination) of the following:

* Jobseeker's Allowance ( JA)
* Farm Assist ( FA)
* Pre-Retirement Allowance ( PRETA)

their combined payments cannot exceed the amount which would be payable if only one person made a claim.

I don't get this, according to this, the combined payment for the couple may not exceed €196?(the amount payable if only 1 person made a claim)

As for the assessing of the capital:


If both parties are in receipt of, or claiming, means tested payments, the asset should not be assessed in full against both. Depending on any other relevant factors, it should be assessed against both on a shared basis or against one only.

what exactly does this mean, if its (40,000 savings) assessed on a shared basis, does that mean 20,000 is allocated to each person, and therefor is disregarded as means?

Thanks.

Xiney

All I know is that at one stage (a few years back now, money since gone), my husband and I had savings of 26k and they only disregarded the first 20k.

peppy007

Xiney wrote: »

All I know is that at one stage (a few years back now, money since gone), my husband and I had savings of 26k and they only disregarded the first 20k.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Were you and your husband both claiming benefits then? Or was one of you working?

Xiney

he was in college (they counted his grant as a benefit) - I was out of work.

peppy007

Xiney wrote: »

he was in college (they counted his grant as a benefit) - I was out of work.

Ok well that's a bit different, in your case, you were only claiming benefit for yourself.

I'm talking about if say both you and your husband were unemployed and seeking work. If you were to seek JSA for yourself and your husband, and not just yourself, then surely you can have 20,000 each in savings that can be disregarded?

If both parties are in receipt of, or claiming, means tested payments, the asset should not be assessed in full against both. Depending on any other relevant factors, it should be assessed against both on a shared basis or against one only.

-taken from the social welfare site

Xiney

right - but I doubt they'd split up the amount. I think ONE of them would have to say they have 40k, and the other would have nothing.

cee_jay

You get a "family rate" together, it is different in that there is a maximum amount you can get as a couple. Anything over 20,000 is assessed against you both as a couple.