# Using Social Welfare and Grants.



## Crandle (3 Mar 2020)

Over the last few years I have simplified my finances in order to get a mortgage and apply for medical cards and maybe Family Income Supplement (now WFP ?).
My policy is that I will not save long term. I will spend any extra cash on holidays or a car. Any lump sum would be used for home improvements. This will ensure that I am always eligible for a medical card and "SUSI"  education grants and FIS/WFP payments.
Is this a good financial strategy in Ireland ?
I was self employed for 12 years and went into a PAYE job for 12 months and have now gone part-time as a PAYE worker.


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## Mrs Vimes (4 Mar 2020)

Good luck getting a mortgage with no savings history and an income low enough to require state assistance.


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## josh8267 (4 Mar 2020)

Mrs Vimes said:


> Good luck getting a mortgage with no savings history and an income low enough to require state assistance.


From my reading of the above post they already have a mortgage in place before giving up full time employment,


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## elcato (5 Mar 2020)

I believe the OP is trying to start a debate on whether we are better off not having any savings for a rainyday as you will lose state benefits by working harder.


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## NoRegretsCoyote (5 Mar 2020)

It's a bit too vague to give a full answer, but..............


Basically DEASP make the implicit assumption that every €1000 of savings generates €50 in net income annually, and reduce your eligibility accordingly.

This assumption may have been logical in the past. But it makes little sense now as the net real rate on cash savings is basically negative now due to inflation.


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## huskerdu (5 Mar 2020)

If your income is below the eligibility limits for a medical card, I'm not sure you will have any spare cash for holidays, cars and house improvements


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## josh8267 (5 Mar 2020)

elcato said:


> I believe the OP is trying to start a debate on whether we are better off not having any savings for a rainyday as you will lose state benefits by working harder.


I would agree with you, but  lots of system users are hard working lots of loop holes left in the system for the well connected and the cottage Industry 
Built to take advantage of known loop holes,


huskerdu said:


> If your income is below the eligibility limits for a medical card, I'm not sure you will have any spare cash for holidays, cars and house improvements


AA but well off system users can have it both ways,


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## Allpartied (8 Mar 2020)

Crandle said:


> Over the last few years I have simplified my finances in order to get a mortgage and apply for medical cards and maybe Family Income Supplement (now WFP ?).
> My policy is that I will not save long term. I will spend any extra cash on holidays or a car. Any lump sum would be used for home improvements. This will ensure that I am always eligible for a medical card and "SUSI"  education grants and FIS/WFP payments.
> Is this a good financial strategy in Ireland ?
> I was self employed for 12 years and went into a PAYE job for 12 months and have now gone part-time as a PAYE worker.



I'm not sure how the Social Welfare system punishes savings, but SUSI is really  quite flexible. 
It's not the amount you have saved that they use to assess the income limits, but the income you get from those savings.  If you have the money in a deposit account or put it in prize bonds, the income will be next to nothing.  Even if you have a 100k saved up, you'd be lucky to see an income of 500 Euros per year.  I presume this policy is followed to placate Irish farmers, who are sitting on million pound assets , but getting much lower incomes.  

In addition, they actually reward you for saving, if you put the money into your pension.  So pension contributions, do not count as part of the means test. For example if you are 50 and put 20% of your salary in to a pension scheme, the means test will not count that figure in the calculations.


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## kateLaila (26 Jul 2020)

re means test for SUSI. My annual income indicates that my daughter would be entitled to the SUSI grant. However a lump sum payment from a pension at 60 is included in the means test for that year. It seems unfair as revenue do not tax pension lump sums below 200,000 that it should be included.  Its like I will get the 20,000 in one hand tax free but then another hand reaches in and takes back the value of the SUSI grant which I would otherwise be entitled to.


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