Publication
Operational Guidelines: Increase for a Qualified Adult
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
The main legislative provisions for the payment of an Increase for a Qualified Adult are:
Part I of the Social Welfare (Consolidated Claims, Payments and Control) Regulations, 2007, (SI 142/2007) (as amended), especially Articles 6 to 11
Subject to the following conditions and those applying to the different schemes, an Increase for a Qualified Adult (IQA) is payable in respect of a person who is wholly or mainly maintained by the customer.
Note: State Pension (Non-Contributory) scheme and Blind Person's Pension in particular have different rules. See the relevant guidelines dealing with these schemes.
Note: Where it comes to attention that any request for an increase is intended for an underage cohabitant, the case will be referred to TUSLA through the normal DSP Children First channels.
DSP officers will consult with the department’s Designated Child First Liaison Persons for each Region for operational advice on the referral procedures if required.
A spouse/civil partner/cohabitant of a customer on a means-tested payment is regarded as being wholly or mainly maintained by that customer where two conditions apply – they are one of a couple (as defined in the Act), and live together as generally understood in terms of an ongoing personal relationship i.e. the relationship is intact and the individuals are mutually committed. Articles 7(2) and 7(6) of SI 142/2007 refer.
Any income, from any source, is assessed as part of the means assessment for the family payment.
A family rate of payment applies to Jobseeker's Allowance (JA), Disability Allowance (DA) and Farm Assist (FA). See the scheme-specific operational guidelines for guidance on the calculation of a family rate. Schedule 3 of the 2005 Act and article 7 of SI 142 of 2007 refers.
A spouse/civil partner/cohabitant of the customer is only regarded as being wholly or mainly maintained by the customer, where that person’s weekly income, calculated as shown in "Calculation of Weekly Income" in section 6, does not exceed €100 per week. When this limit applies, a full rate of increase for a qualified adult rate is payable. If the spouse/civil partner/cohabitant’s weekly income exceeds this limit but is less than or equal to €310.00 per week, a lower (tapered) rate of increase is payable.
Where a married couple have separated or are divorced or where a civil partnership has been dissolved, the customer's ex-spouse or ex-civil partner may be regarded as a qualified adult where s/he:
A person over 16 years who has the care of one or more of the customer's children, may be regarded as being wholly or mainly maintained by the customer, i.e. regarded as a Qualified Adult, in certain limited circumstances. The dependant adult must co-reside with the customer, to provide support with childcare, and must also not have an income in excess of €100 per week. The customer must be single and not maintaining any other person.
The child who is in the care of this person must be a qualified child of the customer, i.e. a child in respect of whom an IQC is payable to the customer.
An example of this form of co-resident relationship could apply to situations where an older child - or another relative - of a widowed or a single parent, is caring for the customer’s younger children.
A customer’s entitlement to payment of an IQA in respect of a non-EEA spouse/civil partner/cohabitant should be determined in exactly the same way as if the spouse/civil partner/cohabitant were an EEA national.
An IQA is payable provided that the normal conditions for payment of an IQA are satisfied.
The person being considered as a qualified adult does not need to have a right to reside in the State.
An adverse decision on an application for asylum may be appealed. If an appeal fails, a Deportation Order is issued. The applicant may then apply for a Judicial Review.
The IQA remains payable while the above procedures are in process, provided the remaining conditions continue to be satisfied.
When a non-EEA national applies for a restricted visa to enter the country for a specific period of time and for a specific purpose, e.g. on a student visa, s/he is obliged to show that s/he has sufficient funds to support him/herself for the duration of the stay, before permission to enter the State will be granted.
In a cohabitation case, an application for an IQA in respect of this person should be referred to a SWI to establish the details of the person’s income. When it is established that the normal statutory conditions for payment of IQA are satisfied, then IQA may be paid.
a) Supplementary Welfare Allowance
b) Child Benefit
c) COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment under section 68L or the pandemic unemployment payment under section 202
d) Disablement Benefit
e) Death Benefit in respect of an Orphan
f) Domiciliary Care Allowance
g) Half-rate Carer’s Allowance
h) Guardian's Payment (Contributory)
i) Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory).
a) Back To Education Allowance (BTEA) scheme
b) Back To Work Allowance (BTWA) scheme
c) Back To Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) scheme
d) Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme, or
e) JobBridge (the national internship scheme).
Note: A spouse/civil partner/cohabitant who is participating in the Community Employment (CE) scheme, TÚS, the Rural Social Scheme (RSS) or Gateway CAN be admitted as a qualified adult provided s/he meets the other conditions for qualification (i.e. is wholly or mainly maintained by the customer, with a weekly income (from any source) under the under the prescribed limit, for example a spouse earning under €100 a week on the CE course).
Where a Jobseekers Allowance customer’s spouse/civil partner/cohabitant is participating in the Community Employment (CE) scheme and the scheme commenced prior to 1 January 2023 they can still be admitted as a qualified adult.
In some circumstances, the increase for a qualified adult may be paid while the customer is no longer entitled to the claim by reason of not being available or able to satisfy the scheme conditions.
Please see the 'Absence from the State' and the ‘Payment Related Issues’ guidelines for details of schemes that have limited exceptions to these rules.
The weekly income of a qualified adult of a customer in receipt of a contribution-based benefit is calculated in the following manner:
The gross income figure is used, no deductions are allowed in respect of, for example, tax, PRSI, VHI, superannuation and the Universal Social Charge (USC) etc.
Note: The Regulations allow a Deciding Officer to choose another period to calculate the average weekly income of a spouse/civil partner/cohabitant where this appears more appropriate. (For example, if the standard period was unrepresentative because of sickness or unusual overtime earnings, a longer period would be chosen. Or if the employment has just started, the current earnings are assessed).
Where the qualified adult avails of either paid or unpaid leave, the estimate of gross weekly income should reflect the level of income likely to be received by the spouse/civil partner/cohabitant in the coming year.
Where this information is not available, income for the coming year should be estimated by reference to income in the past 52 weeks to the end of the leave period.
While employed the qualified adult has a weekly income of €400.00. S/he takes Term Time Leave for 13 weeks from 1 June 2017. In order to ascertain the amount of earnings which s/he is likely to receive in the 52 weeks from the start of the leave, her weekly income should be multiplied by 39 (52 - 13) and divided by 52:
€400 x 39 = €15,600/52 = €300.00. IQA is payable at a tapered rate in this case as the gross income of the spouse/civil partner/cohabitant does not exceed €310.00.
This approach ensures that, irrespective of whether the spouse/civil partner/cohabitant opts to take paid or unpaid leave, e.g. Term-Time, Parental Leave, Special Unpaid Leave, leave from employment, unpaid Maternity Leave, there is no difference in the way the customer is treated for IQA purposes. It also ensures that a spouse/civil partner/cohabitant who decides to forego salary for the duration of the leave period, is not being treated more favourably for IQA purposes than a spouse/civil partner/cohabitant who opts to have his/her salary spread over 52 weeks.
Weekly income from self-employment is estimated by reference to the income received in the last complete tax year i.e. annual income divided by 52.
In the main, income from self-employment should derive from an SW Inspector’s report. Every report should summarise the gross income less allowable, work-related expenses for the 12 month period prior to the investigation in order to arrive at the net income for that period. Drawings should be assessed if this figure is higher than the net profit reported. A report should outline the documentation examined to support the assertion as presented so that it is clear to a Deciding Officer how the final assessment has been arrived at.
Where an inspector forms the view that the level and volume of trade has remained consistent during the preceding year, it is reasonable to assess the same level of income for the succeeding year. This approach also holds true in cases where the level of trade, although not constant, is maintained at a steady pace over the year.
If the income and expenditure accounts for the previous 12 months demonstrate an incremental and sustained downturn over a period of time; the projected net income for the succeeding 12 months should take account of this and be reflective of the diminishing trade on a proportionate basis.
Note:
(1) The gross income figure is used - i.e. total receipts less work-related expenses.
(2) No deductions are allowed in respect of personal expenses such as tax, PRSI, or VHI etc.
The legislation does not contain a definition of “property” so the term is given its ordinary meaning – basically any asset the customer owns and could derive benefit from, including:
(1) Houses, other buildings, yards, farmland or other property which is invested, or put to profitable use, or is capable of being invested or put to profitable use but is not.
(2) Savings, deposits in banks, building societies, Post Office, credit unions or other financial institutions, shares, bonds etc.
Note:
(1) Where property is held jointly (e.g. by a couple), half the current value of the asset is taken as belonging to each.
(2) The amount of any mortgage or loan outstanding is allowed as a deduction in estimating the net weekly value of the property.
(3) Where an asset is not put to a ‘profitable use’, the current market value is determined and used as the basis for assessment.
The method of calculating the weekly income from any form of property is as follows:
| Capital | Weekly income assessed |
| First €20,000 | Nil |
| Next €10,000 | €1 per €1,000 |
| Next €10,000 | €2 per €1,000 |
| Excess €40,000 | €4 per €1,000 |
The assessment only applies to units of €1,000. Therefore all amounts should be rounded to the nearest unit of €1,000.
This assessment of income limits has applied to the following benefit schemes since 2005:
Blind Pension, Carer’s Benefit, Disablement Pension, Health & Safety Benefit, Illness Benefit, Incapacity Supplement, Invalidity Pension; Jobseeker’s Benefit, Occupational Injury Benefit, and State Pension Contributory.
A saver clause applies to the effect that where a person was in receipt of a pension payment at a date of change* and the previous assessment was more favourable to the person; his or her entitlement will not be reduced because of the change of formula. The saver clause ceases to apply when the capital increases.
* The method of calculation changed in October 2000 and January 2002 and details are in earlier versions of this Guideline. Members of the public can request an archive copy for a particular year by sending an email to info@welfare.ie
The provision for assessing income from any other sources (in Article 8.1(d) of the Regulations) is broadly defined. It is intended to capture all other forms of income generated from ownership of assets or sources other than those specified above. These include income from rental properties or leases, occupational pensions, insurance policies including life assurance, a trust fund, a deed of covenant, non-EU social security payments; maintenance payments from a former spouse/civil partner, and various other forms of periodic income. This list is not exhaustive.
This form of income is also calculated on a weekly basis.
When calculating the average weekly income of a qualified adult, the following payments are excluded:
(1) Disablement Benefit (under Section 75)
(2) Death Benefit in respect of an Orphan (under Section 83)
(3) Guardian's Payment (Contributory)
(4) Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory)
(5) Half-rate Carer’s Allowance
(6) Domiciliary Care Allowance
(7) a payment from Tusla (Child and Family Agency) in respect of a child who is boarded out (Tusla Foster Care Allowance)
(8) pandemic unemployment payment paid under Section 202, or
COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment under Section 68L,
(9) And/or Child Benefit.
Any income from social welfare payments other than the above, is to be included in the calculation of the spouse/partner’s income.
Article 8(3) of SI 142/2007 provides for the disregard of some other payments from public sources.
These include:
(1) any sums from compensation awarded by -
(2) any ex gratia payments made under the
(3) any payments awarded
(4) Educational awards that include:
(5) Sport Ireland payments under the International Carding Scheme.
(6) A rental income disregard of up to a maximum of €269.23 per week for owner occupiers who rent a room(s) as living accommodation for at least 28 consecutive days to person(s) other than immediate family members or employees, effective from 12th July 2022.
(7) Disregard of the €400 monthly Accommodation Recognition Payment received for hosting temporary protection beneficiaries.
Refer to section 2 of the Means Assessment guidelines for a further list of income disregards that may apply.
The current rates of IQA vary according to the Scheme under which the claim is made. Refer to relevant scheme guidelines in association with published Rates Booklet SW 19, available at www.gov.ie/dsp.
Tapered (reduced) rates are payable in certain schemes where the spouse/civil partner/cohabitant’s weekly income exceeds €100 per week but is less than €310 weekly.
A lower (tapered) rate of increase is payable in the case of:
The legislative provisions are in Articles 9-11 of SI 142/2007 and Sections 46A and B of the 2005 Act (for Partial Capacity Benefit only).
Details of the tapered Rates of Payment for past years from 1982 to 2016 are available on an archived list on www.gov.ie/dsp. The archive is divided into Pre 2003 and Post 2003 periods.