Assessing the means of a couple for social assistance payments

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.

This document gives a general overview of how the means test is carried out for couples. You should also read the document on the payment you are getting or have applied for as it will give more detail on income not taken into account (or disregarded) for each payment.

For more general information you can read our document on the means test. If you are getting a social insurance payment such as Jobseeker's Benefit or State Pension (Contributory) and wish to claim a payment for your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant only their means will be tested. You can find out more about claiming a payment for a qualified adult in our document Claiming for an adult dependant.

Note that in general 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. Therefore it can be assessed in full against each of you. However, if you are both getting means-tested payments it will be assessed on a shared basis or against only one of you.

For Blind Pension and State Pension (Non-Contributory) your means are taken to be half of the total means of yourself and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant.

In the means test, all your sources of income are added together and 50% of the total is taken to be your means. When assessing your means from capital your combined capital is halved and this lower amount is assessed using the standard formula. The resulting amount is then doubled before being added to your other sources of income.

For Carer's Allowance your means are taken to be half of the total means of yourself and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant.

In the means test, all your sources of income are added together and 50% of the total is taken to be your means. When assessing your means from capital your combined capital is halved and this lower amount is assessed using the standard formula. The resulting amount is then doubled before being added to your other sources of income.

For Jobseeker's Allowance, Disability Allowance or Farm Assist your means are assessed against the maximum household payment for your circumstances. Your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant and any dependant children you may have, are included to find the maximum household payment. Even if your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is not dependent on you and has income in his or her own right, any assessable income they may have is subtracted from the maximum weekly rate of payment for your circumstances.

For example, if you are married and have two children under 12 years of age and apply for JA, the maximum family payment you could get is €450 (this figure is made up of personal rate of €220 plus a qualified adult rate of €146 and two qualified child increases of €42). Any assessable income you or your spouse has is deducted from this family payment. (Income from some sources is not assessed and there are disregards for income from employment, see our document, Work and Jobseeker's Allowance for more information.)

However if your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant has a social welfare payment in their own right (with some exceptions such as Child Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance, and Supplementary Welfare Allowance) you cannot claim an Increase for a Qualified Adult (IQA) for them. This means you are paid as a single person plus a half-rate increase for each qualified child. (Your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant will get a half-rate increase for each qualified child with their payment.) In this case, half of your combined means are taken into account in the means test.

Jobseeker's Allowance

Community Employment: If you are getting Jobseeker's Allowance and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant start a Community Employment (CE) Scheme in 2023, you cannot claim an IQA for them. This means you are paid as a single person plus a full-rate increase for each qualified child. In this case, half of your combined means are taken into account in the means test. If your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant started their CE Scheme before 2023, it is assessed as part-time work.

Maximum payment to a couple: Note that if you are getting 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. You can choose which payment is most advantageous.

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

More information can be found in our document on the means test for Jobseeker's Allowance.

• Case study: Maximising a couple's income from jobseeker's payments