Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Martin Cullen.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on the Minister's behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible tenants living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Eligibility is in general confined to those who are in receipt of a social welfare or HSE payment. There are currently over 61,000 tenants benefiting from assistance under the rent supplement scheme. In order to qualify for a rent supplement a person must be a bona fide tenant; satisfy the Health Service Executive that he or she has a housing need which he or she cannot meet from his or her own resources; apply to the local housing authority for an assessment of housing needs if requested to do so by the Health Service Executive; be habitually resident in the State; and satisfy the general conditions of entitlement to supplementary welfare allowance.

Where a person is referred to a housing authority by the HSE, the housing authority is asked to determine if the person has a housing need and to make a recommendation accordingly. When the housing authority has completed the assessment for rent supplement purposes, it notifies the local community welfare officer of the outcome as soon as possible.

The Health Service Executive has advised that rent supplement was paid for the period December 2004 to November 2005 in respect of the household of which the person concerned was a member. Following separation from her husband, the Health Service Executive issued an exceptional needs payment of €847 in August 2006 to the person concerned to assist with the payment of rent arrears. This payment was issued pending verification of a number of issues that would have a bearing on her rent supplement entitlement.

The executive has advised that the person concerned first submitted an application for rent supplement in her own right in respect of her previous residence in November 2006. The person concerned was advised in writing on 14 December 2006 of the executive's decision to refuse payment of rent supplement on the grounds that the local housing authority considered that she did not have a housing need in accordance with section 9 of the Housing Act 1988.

The executive has further advised that on 28 February 2008, it exercised its discretion and issued an exceptional needs payment of €5,052 directly to the landlord of the previous address of the person concerned in respect of the months from April 2007 to October 2007. The executive has advised that the payment was issued in respect of arrears of rent due and was issued without prejudice to the status of the rent supplement entitlement of the person concerned.

The executive has advised that it has not received a formal application for rent supplement from the person concerned in respect of her current residence. It has further advised that it has not received an appeal from the person concerned against the decision not to award a rent supplement in respect of the previous residence.

It is open to the person concerned to appeal any decision made by a community welfare officer in respect of her rent supplement entitlement. The person concerned should make a formal application for rent supplement in respect of her current residence so that a decision on her entitlement can be formally determined.

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