Medical Card and Credit Union question

Does anyone know if the HSE takes into account Credit Union savings when assessing you for the Medical Card?

All helpful answers appreciated.

the Credit Union savings are taken into account for the means test for the medical card, savings are savings. of course the HSE has no way of identifying whether applicants have credit union accounts, only if you disclose it to them.

Thank you for your reply. If you do not have to disclose Credit Union account info when applying for the Medical Card then she should be fine.

details of deposits with financial institutions are asked for in the means tested application form

Oh, well I think she's already started the application. It's a bit complicated.

The money isn't actually savings, the woman who is applying for the Medical Card has a daughter in the hospital and the daughters school held a fundraising event. So she's worried that if she puts this money into her Credit Union account then she might be denied a Medical Card if they think she has too much savings.

Although she is married and her husband is working so she may not be entitled to a Medical Card through a means test but might be entitled to one under "Undue Hardship" criteria. If this is the case then money in the Credit Union might not be an issue at all.

I wouldnt include the money raised through fund raising! Best of luck!

Thank you. I'll tell her she shouldn't have to worry.

Savings Disregard

I found this here [broken link removed]

- The first €36,000 of savings will be disregarded for a single person and for a couple €72,000 will be disregarded.

- The next €10,000 @ one (1) Euro per week per €1,000.
- The next €10,000 @ two (2) Euro per week per €1,000.

Savings in excess of the above @ four (4) Euro per week per €1,000

Alternatively where the applicant wishes s/he can have the actual rate applied if s/he provides a certificate of interest paid on savings in the last full calendar year and the HSE will apply this method of assessment.

In respect of fixed term or long term savings products that apply the interest after a fixed number of years, the HSE can take account of the interest earned in the year of maturity of the investment. Alternatively the HSE, if the client so wishes can apply the notional rate to determine the income.

Click to expand...

Can anyone confirm if these disregard amts still apply.

Surprisingly yes!. Those amounts still apply

Black Sheep said:

Surprisingly yes!. Those amounts still apply

Click to expand...

why surprisingly!!

As medical cards income guidelines are pretty much in line with SW rates it would be a bit unusual to be claiming SW while having 73K in savings.

Most SW means tested payments allow a disregard of 40K and HSE means tested payments 10K

These disregards apply to couples

Its not a good idea to mix money from a fundraiser with personal funds in any event, for a number of different reasons. For example, who would the own the interest that would be earned? Who would have DIRT liability? What happens if you have direct debits and they accidentally eat into the money that isn't really yours?? What happens if she dies tomorrow with the money sitting in her account? These might not seem like big issues now, but these things have a habit of getting nasty when someone asks questions later on or if something unforseen happens. Not to mention that mixing personal money with charitable or professional monies is just bad accounting practise in any event.

If money is in your account it will be taken at face value to belong to you. You would be expected to declare that this money is held, and then explain why you say it isn't really your money. If you didn't declare it and it came to light later on, you could be accused of fraud, which even if you can prove it in the end, is not soemthing that you want to have to deal with. Its messy at the very least.

If she is holding the money, and wants to put it in an account, she really should set up a separate account for it.