Gift of money and social welfare

Bakedwhite

Hi,
I am hoping to get some info here before I speak to the social office. My father has gifted me some money, I am sad to say he is dying and decided to give me the money for my newborns future. Its E 30,000 and I have just put it into a savings account. My partner and I are both currently unemployed and it took a long time after returning home from abroad for us to get any benefits. I am going to declare it to the welfare of course and I'm aware I will be cut a certain amount. My question is, as a (unmarried) couple on welfare with a child is the savings threshold any different or is it 20,000 per claim? Also will the rent allowance be cut completely now too. I know the gift is wonderful but I would like to put aside for rainy day for our newborn or a mortgage maybe in the future but in the mean time what am I reduced to live on? The savings will disappear fairly quick if we get a massive cut.
Thanks

mp22

If 30k is your total savings you will lose €10 per week.if not have a read here

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/irish_social_welfare_system/means_test_for_social_welfare_payments/means_test_for_jobseekers_allowance.html

Balagan

-€40 from your Rent Supplement
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/supplementary_welfare_schemes/rent_supplement.html

Atlantic Dawn

If your father would have given you €15k and your partner €15k it wouldn't cause any reduction to either of your JSA's as €20k is the threshold.

Balagan

If you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting the Department of Social Protection (DSP) will assess both of your means when carrying out a means test for a social assistance payment. This is the case even if only one of you is actually claiming a payment.

For some social assistance payments the DSP adds all of your means together and then halves them to get the assessable means for each one of you. For others the DSP adds all your means together and then assesses them against the maximum household payment for your circumstances.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/irish_social_welfare_system/means_test_for_social_welfare_payments/assessing_the_means_of_a_couple.html

Nomis21

Any assets over 5,000 Euro and you start to get a reduction in Rent Allowance.

If you are not planning to spend most of the money, you can just let your Father give you 5,000 Euro now and and then with the balance open a trust for your son with a solicitor, or someone else you can trust, who will use the money in your newborn's interests.