Ms Helen Faughnan:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before it on the matter of our supplementary welfare allowance scheme, or SWA, as it is most often referred to. I would like to introduce my colleagues. On my left is Jackie Harrington, who is the principal with responsibility for SWA policy and is based in our headquarters office in Sligo. On my right is Carl O'Rourke, who is head of the Department's homeless persons unit and asylum seekers and new communities units in Dublin, based in North Cumberland Street and Gardiner Street. Also on my right is Rita Tighe, who is the area manager for the Blanchardstown Intreo centre, which operates the full range of our Department schemes, including supplementary welfare allowance.

The SWA scheme acts as a safety net within the overall social welfare system and its objective is to provide assistance to people whose means are insufficient to meet their basic needs and those of their dependants. A range of payments and supplements are administered under the SWA scheme, ranging from basic once-off weekly payments to once-off emergency payments and the rent supplement payment, a very important payment in terms of the deliberations of this committee. The scheme is administered by the Department's community welfare service, whose staff have considerable experience in engaging with people facing challenging and financially difficult times resulting from, for example, unemployment, ill health or relationship breakdown, and who may end up in homeless services. These staff are generally based in our Department's Intreo centres throughout the country and work very closely with local authorities, the homeless action teams throughout the country and other local stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations to provide the necessary financial supports to facilitate people to access accommodation.

Overall, the response to the current extremely difficult housing situation has to be multifaceted, and this level of inter-agency participation ensures greater integration between the key agencies involved in the area of homelessness and related services. The Department is also represented on the homelessness policy implementation team in the newly formed Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to oversee the implementation of that action plan.

Fundamentally, the main cause of rising rents is a lack of supply, and the implementation of the range of actions under the Construction 2020 strategy, the social housing strategy 2020 and the most recent programme for Government will support increased housing supply. Notwithstanding this, there is an inevitable time-lag in the provision of new stock and the difficult and distressing challenges faced by people, including those in receipt of rent supplement, in maintaining suitable, affordable accommodation. All of these issues are well documented. The State is a key player in providing support to these people and is providing almost €450 million this year in respect of a third of the private rented market under rent supplement, the housing assistance payment and the rental accommodation scheme.

The accommodation needs of almost 100,000 individuals and families are supported through these three schemes.

I will now provide some background information on the rent supplement scheme and the steps being taken by the Department to support customers to maintain their homes during these difficult times. The Government has provided more than €260 million for the scheme this year. Approximately 56,800 people are in receipt of rent supplement, of which almost 4,500 were awarded the payment in the first four months of this year. The provision of support under the rent supplement scheme is a key priority for the Department. This issue is under consideration by the Cabinet committee on housing in the context of the overall Government commitments contained in the programme for a partnership Government to provide affordable, quality and accessible housing. The programme for Government includes the commitment to increase rent supplement limits. The Department is examining options to increase the limits in line with this commitment.

The Department has in place a number of targeted measures to ensure that people at risk of homelessness or loss of their tenancies continue to be supported under the rent supplement scheme at this time of further increased rents and reduced supply. We are operating an individual case management approach which is kept under constant review in the light of the vital feedback our staff receives from stakeholders, including customers, non-governmental organisations and, very importantly, Oireachtas Members. Under this approach, each tenant's circumstances are considered on a case-by-case basis, and I assure the committee that payments are being increased above prescribed limits as necessary. Staff in the community welfare service have a statutory discretionary power to award or increase a supplement for rental purposes. This flexible approach has already assisted almost 8,200 households throughout the country to retain their rented accommodation. We estimate that the average number of people receiving an uplift payment will increase to approximately 8,900 in 2016, equating to approximately 16% of the average number of people receiving rent supplement. These uplifts will cost approximately €23 million this year.

In addition, the Department, in conjunction with Threshold, operates a special protocol as part of the tenancy protection service in Dublin, Cork and the commuter counties of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, to where it was recently extended. It will go live in Galway city over the next two weeks. The level of housing supply is particularly acute in all of these areas. The primary objective of the tenancy protection service is to provide advice and support to householders experiencing housing problems and at risk of homelessness. The key add-on for this service is these people advocate on behalf of the clients. Almost half of the calls - approximately 4,000 - to the Threshold service were resolved without referral to the Department for financial support. The protocol ensures a speedy intervention to ensure that our customers who are at imminent risk of losing their tenancy will get immediate financial assistance. The programme for a partnership Government has identified expanding the protocol nationwide. The Department of Social Protection will work actively with Threshold and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to ensure the extension happens as speedily as required.

The strategic policy direction of the Department is to return rent supplement to its original purpose of being a short-term income support scheme, mainly for people who are unemployed. To achieve this, the Government has two initiatives to deal with long-term reliance on rent supplement. These are the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, which has been in operation since 2004 and the more recent housing assistance payment, HAP, which started in 2014. These are key pillars of the social housing strategy and the Pathways to Work programme. Under HAP, responsibility for the provision of rental assistance to those with a long-term housing need is transferring to local authorities. The key benefit of HAP with regard to Pathways to Work is that it will ensure households which find full-time employment can retain their rented accommodation. HAP is operational in 19 of the 31 local authority areas, and a homeless project operates in the four Dublin local authority areas. Almost 9,580 people are in receipt of HAP, with more than one third of them having transferred directly from the rent supplement scheme.

I will mention two further supports under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the first of which is the exceptional needs payment. Under it, we can provide rent deposits or rent in advance to vulnerable people who are on low incomes and rely on the private rental market. To the end of this April, 750 rent deposit or rent-in-advance payments had been made at a cost of almost €465,000. The second support is the humanitarian assistance scheme, under which 540 households that were badly affected by the flooding and bad weather conditions of last winter have been supported in restoring their homes to a habitable condition at a cost of €1.1 million.

The Department recognises that homelessness is one of the most visible and distressing signs of the social impact of the crisis. The Department continues to take specific actions to address the problems. We will examine the best options for increasing the rent supplement limits, which, with the new rent certainty measures in place, will give greater certainty to tenants. Our community welfare service will continue the targeted and flexible interventions in respect of increased rent payments. We will continue to support vulnerable prospective tenants with the payment of rent deposits and rent in advance. We will continue working with Threshold to support the tenancy protection service and its proposed extension nationwide. We continue to examine ways of communicating with people who are at risk in order to make them aware of the available supports. The Department is monitoring the supports that are in place to ensure that the appropriate response can continue being provided. Committee members have a vital role in this regard and I urge them to advise people who are experiencing increased rents or people they are aware of who are making top-up payments to contact our offices or Threshold, as we can support them. Sometimes, this key message is not getting out to the most vulnerable.

I trust that my presentation has been of assistance to the committee. I remind members that, in terms of communication, we have key posters that are on view in social welfare offices, post offices and Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, offices. We have circulated them to Oireachtas Members but will re-issue them in light of the newly formed Government. We ask that Members display them in constituency offices and so on and we will e-mail copies to the committee members.