Means test for Jobseeker's Allowance

To qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) you must satisfy a means test. In a means test, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) examines all your sources of income to test if they are under a certain amount. If they are under that amount, you will get Jobseeker’s Allowance. The amount of Jobseeker’s Allowance you get depends on your income.

In the means test for Jobseeker’s Allowance, your household income is assessed. This means if you are married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting, the DSP also assesses your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant’s income. Sometimes a certain amount of income, or income from certain sources, is not taken into account. This is called an ‘income disregard’.

The means test examines the following types of income:

• Cash income (including income from work)
• Property that you personally use
• Capital (savings and investments) and property that you don’t personally use
• Benefit and privilege from living with your parents

The means test assesses all cash income that you expect to get in the next 12 months. If it is not possible to estimate your income over the next 12 months, it is usually based on the income you received in the previous year.

Cash income that is assessed includes:

• Income from self-employment
• Income from employment
• Farm income
• Income from a social security pension from another country
• Income from maintenance, for example, if you are separated.

Most social welfare payments are not taken into account. The maintenance grant provided under the Student Grant Scheme is also not taken into account as means.

Find out more about cash income not included in the means test.

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

If you are getting Jobseeker’s Allowance, you can get up to €269.23 a week (€14,000 per year) for renting out a room in your own home without it affecting your payment. This does not apply if you are renting to an employee or an immediate family member. If you get any rental income over €14,000 per year, it will be assessed.

You can read more about how property you live in is assessed in the means test for social welfare payments.

Capital includes property, savings and investments. It does not include the home you live in.

If you own property, or have investments, or any other form of capital, the value is assessed using a standard formula (see below), whether or not you are getting an income from the property or investment.

If you rent out your property, your rental income will not be assessed. Any outstanding mortgage registered against the property is deducted from the market value to find the capital value.

The property and investments that may be assessed include:

• Savings in a bank account (or anywhere else)
• A pension lump sum payment
• A house that you rent 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 for the means test.

The formula for assessing the value of capital including property (but not your own home), savings and investments is as follows:

If you have a joint account with your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, legally the total amount in the account is owned by each of you. So, it can be assessed in full against each of you. However, if you are both getting means-tested payments, your joint account will be assessed on a shared basis or against only one of you.

If you are under 25 and live with a parent or a step-parent in the family home, some of your parents' income will also be taken into account in the assessment for Jobseeker's Allowance.

This is called an assessment of the benefit and privilege you get from living with your parents. Find more information on how benefit and privilege is assessed in the means test.

To find your total means, the DSP adds your means from the sources above together (for example, cash income, employment, capital, benefit and privilege).

They will deduct (take away) your total means from the maximum payment for your situation (see below) to find how much Jobseeker’s Allowance you will get paid.

Maximum payment for your situation

Before you deduct means, you must find the maximum JA payment for your situation.

The maximum Jobseeker's Allowance payment you can get is the maximum personal rate of Jobseeker's Allowance plus any increases for adult and child dependants.

Your maximum payment can be affected by the following:

• Your age
• If your partner is on CE
• If you and your partner are both claiming social welfare payments

Age

If you are under 25, the maximum payment you can get depends on your age and some other criteria. Read more about JA rate for people under 25.

Community Employment

Qualified adults who are currently included in a Jobseeker’s Allowance claim can take part in a Community Employment (CE) Scheme without having to apply for a separate social welfare payment.

However, the Increase for a Qualified Adult is not paid while your qualified adult is on a CE Scheme. In this situation:

• You will get a personal rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance and a half-rate Child Support Payment.
• Your spouse/partner who is on the CE Scheme will be paid the CE Scheme Rate and also a half-rate Child Support Payment.
• Your spouse/partner’s CE payment (not including the half-rate Child Support Payment) is assessed as means. Half of your joint means is taken into account when deciding your personal rate of JA.

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant started their CE scheme before 1 January 2023, your maximum payment will include an increase for an adult dependant and any child dependents. Joint means are not halved, and CE income is assessed as part-time work.

Couples with 2 social welfare payments

If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is getting their own social welfare payment in their own right, you cannot get an Increase for a Qualified Adult with your Jobseeker’s Allowance payment. This does not apply to the following payments; Child Benefit, Disablement Pension, guardian's payments, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Domiciliary Care Allowance or half-rate Carer's Allowance, or if they are on a Further Education and Training (FET) or VTOS course and getting a payment.

This means, if your partner is getting their own social welfare payment, the maximum you can be paid is the full rate Jobseeker’s Allowance payment for a single person, plus a half-rate Child Support Payment for each qualified child. Your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant will also get a half-rate payment for each qualified child with their payment unless they are getting Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (JPRB) – see below.

Only half (50%) of your combined means are taken into account in the means test for your Jobseeker’s Allowance – this means your combined means are halved. The other half will be taken into account in the means test for your partner's payment, if your partner is getting a means-tested payment.

Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit

If your spouse, civil partner, or partner is getting Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (JPRB), it is assessed in the Jobseeker's Allowance (JA) means test.

Half of your partner’s Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (JPRB) payment is assessed as means against your JA (which is the full JA personal rate and half-rate Child Support Payments for any child dependents).

If this assessment results in your combined household income from both JA and JPRB to fall below the family rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance for your situation, your Jobseeker’s Allowance will be increased. It will be increased by the difference between your combined jobseeker’s payments and the JA rate for your family. (The family rate of JA includes the personal rate and full increases for adult and child dependents if any.)

Once JPRB has been assessed and your family JA rate established, then any other means you have will be deducted.

Only 50% of your combined means are taken into account in the means test for your Jobseeker’s Allowance - in other words your combined means are halved.

See 2 examples below of how your JA rate is calculated when your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is getting JPRB.

Maximum rate set by another payment

The maximum rate of payment can be set by JA or it can be set by another social welfare payment.

If you are claiming Jobseeker's Allowance and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is getting one of the social welfare payments listed below, the total amount paid to you as a couple cannot be more than the maximum amount that would be paid to one person (including adult and child dependants) on one social welfare payment (either JA or the other payment) .

• Illness Benefit
• Disablement Pension (when paid with Illness Benefit or Incapacity Supplement)
• Injury Benefit
• Invalidity Pension
• State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• State Pension (Contributory)
• Partial Capacity Benefit
• Jobseeker's Benefit
• Jobseeker's Allowance
• Farm Assist (FA)

If you are both claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, the rate paid to each person is half of the family rate. If either of you is under 25, each person is paid half of the family rate that would apply to them individually.

How your JA rate is calculated when your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is getting JPRB

JPRB is assessed for JA in the following way:

Step 1: The maximum JA family rate is calculated depending on the family composition.

Step 2: Half of the JPRB rate is deducted from the JA rate payable (personal rate and half-rate Child Support Payment(s) if any).

Step 3: If the JA rate and JPRB rate combined are less than the applicable family rate of JA, the JA rate is increased to ensure the family rate is maintained.

Step 4: At this point all other means is assessed - half of the combined means are taken into account and subtracted from the full personal JA rate.

You can also find more information in the Department of Social Protection’s Operational Guidelines about:

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