16 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he has satisfied himself with means testing arrangements for schemes funded by his Department in view of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on means testing arrangements; if he supports a reform of the system to the benefit of the claimant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4649/96]

25 Mr. J. Walsh asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider one single means test to cover all assistance payments from his Department which could also be the basis for other Departments to use, such as the Departments of Health, Education and others. [7185/96]

27 Mr. Collins asked the Minister for Social Welfare the action, if any, he intends to take in response to the recommendations set out by the Comptroller and Auditor General in his recent report on means testing. [7191/96]

35 Mr. P. Gallagher (Laoighis-Offaly) asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he has satisfied himself with means testing arrangements for schemes funded by his Department in view of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on means testing arrangements; if he supports a reform of the system to the benefit of the claimant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4648/96]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 16, 25, 27 and 35 together.

I welcome the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on means testing. The number of means tests which exist at present is a matter of serious concern, both from the point of view of the inconvenience to claimants and of efficiency. This has been an issue for successive Ministers for Social Welfare but only a limited amount of progress has been made in simplifying the present arrangements.

Means testing criteria are broadly similar for all social assistance schemes but there are significant variations in the manner in which some of the components are assessed. These relate mainly to the treatment of capital and of income from employment where different levels of disregards and rates of assessment are applied across the various schemes.

I intend, over time, to standardise the method of assessing capital across the various social assistance schemes so as to improve the equality of the system. I have commenced this process in the Social Welfare Bill, 1996 which provides for a new method of assessing capital in the case of the new disability allowance and the new one-parent family payment. The Bill provides that the first £2,000 of capital will be disregarded, the next £20,000 will be assessed at 7.5 per cent and capital in excess of £22,000 will be assessed at 15 per cent.