Income Support: Disregard of Capital Payments made under Historic Abuse Redress Scheme

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A decision made 1 August 2014:

Decision Reference: MD-S-2014-0100
Decision Summary Title :	Disregard of capital payments made under the Historic Abuse Redress Scheme for Income Support purposes		Date of Decision Summary:	31 July 2014
Decision Summary Author:	Policy Principal		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	N/A		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	N/A		Date of Written Report:	N/A
Written Report Author:	N/A		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	N/A
Subject: Income Support – disregard of capital payments made under the Historic Abuse Redress Scheme
Decision(s): The Minister decided to permanently disregard the capital value of compensation payments made under the Historic Abuse Redress Scheme (sometimes known as “Project Alpha”). These payments will not be included as a capital amount when calculating Income Support entitlement. A previous Ministerial Decision (MD-S-2014-0014) was signed on 04/02/14 and approved the “Income Support Policy Guidelines January 2014”. As part of this decision, a special disregard period of 36 months was created for payments made under this scheme. This Decision extends that disregard indefinitely.
Reason(s) for Decision: Given the unique nature of the payments made under this scheme, the Minister decided that it would not be appropriate to treat them as capital for the purposes of calculating ongoing Income Support entitlement. Following this decision, receipt of a payment under the Scheme will have no effect on a household’s entitlement to Income Support benefit.
Resource Implications: There are no financial or manpower implications.
Action required: Policy Principal to liaise with colleagues in Treasury and Health & Social Services to ensure that this extended disregard can be communicated to all persons who have received (and will receive) a payment under the scheme.
Signature:		Position:
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):