Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know the Department of Social Protection has the ability to make a deduction from a social welfare payment if there has been an overpayment at some point in the past. In some cases, the Department goes back very long distances. This section of the Bill allows for a 15% deduction. Can this be applied in addition to another deduction? If there has also been a social welfare overpayment, for example, is it possible that two deductions would be made in such a scenario? Is there a bottom line in terms of the amount of money that people are likely to be left with in terms of a social welfare payment?

I referred on Committee Stage to the constituent who approached me regarding his property tax bill and the cheapest method of paying it. If he paid it in the post office, he discovered, it would cost him €1 per month on top of the tax itself. Having concluded that the best approach was to ask for the tax to be deducted from his social protection payment, he was told that this could not be done because it would leave him with less than the supplementary welfare rate to live on. There is something of a paradox here in the context of what is set out in the provisions we are discussing.

We are all agreed that people should pay their rent. Moreover, there certainly are people who have a poor record in this regard and must constantly be chased. There are others, however, who inadvertently find themselves in rent arrears. I made the point on Committee Stage that there must be a change in the situation whereby people lose their job in January but their rent payment is calculated on the basis of what they earned in the previous year. Such a person is very likely to run up a debt. While people in that situation might well be in arrears on paper, when it comes to doing a reconciliation the following year and taking into account the reduction in income for the time they are out of work, they may not, in fact, end up with the stated arrears. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to manage money in that situation and for people to estimate what the arrears might be. Instead of an annual review, a quarterly or half-yearly review might be more appropriate. A clarification is required in terms of how rent payments are calculated.

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