2089. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Minister for Social Protection his plans to increase the income limit from €100 per week for adult dependents. [63368/26]

Article 7 of SI 142 of 2007, the Social Welfare (Consolidated Claims, Payments and Control) Regulations, as amended, sets out the income limit for the payment of a Qualified Adult Increase across a range of schemes. A Qualified Adult Increase must be payable on the scheme and some schemes have additional rules.

A Qualified Adult Increase can be paid to:

• a spouse (husband or wife) / civil partner / cohabitant, including those married or divorced, or whose marriage or civil partnership has been dissolved;

• a person over 16 years of age who resides with and cares for a qualified child of the customer, and is wholly or mainly maintained by the customer.

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 does not exceed €100 per week. Where that person’s weekly income does not exceed €100 per week, a full Qualified Adult Increase 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 rate of increase is payable.

Means tests and income thresholds are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. In particular, a number of changes to means testing which provide for higher income disregards have been introduced.

A comprehensive review of means testing in the social protection system is underway. The outcome of the review will inform decisions regarding any potential changes to means testing.

Any changes to the income limit for the payment of an Qualified Adult Increase would need to encompass all schemes affected and would have to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context.