Dáil debates
Thursday, 12 July 2018
Topical Issue Debate
Social and Affordable Housing Funding
4:30 pm
Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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This may be the final sitting day before the summer recess but we will be back in September. The Minister of State should imagine getting a letter last week saying that it was his last day on the council housing list and that, after ten years, he was being removed for being a few hundred euro over the limit. That is happening and it is an absolute scandal. I will give an example. The following was stated in a letter received by one of my constituents this week, "Having assessed your income details provided I regret to inform you that you are no longer eligible to be considered for social housing support by Fingal County Council as your income exceeds the limits set out in the council's allocation scheme for social housing support." This woman has been on the housing list for 12 years. The family has six children. My calculation is that they are €1,662 over the income limit for a family of that size, which is €40,250. Of their income, which is assessed to be over the limit, €3,300 is a family income supplement, FIS, payment which recognises that this family does not have enough money to live on yet the State is also saying that it is no longer eligible to be considered for social housing. That is just mad. How could that be? I know the Minister of State would not want to stand over this kind of policy yet he must fix it.
As it stands, the income threshold level for which an applicant may qualify for social housing in Fingal is set at €35,000 per annum, for a single person. Beyond this, depending on family sizes, the threshold varies. For an average family of two adults and two children, however, the level sits at €38,500 per annum. In cases where a household contains three adults and four children, the threshold stands at its highest, €42,000. These limits were established in 2011 and have not been reviewed by the Government since, or at least they have not changed . The income threshold as it stands is simply too low and has led to more problems being created than solved.
Many families in Fingal who have been on the housing list for in excess of seven years now find themselves being removed from that same list, due to being a couple of hundred euro over the existing threshold. This is simply an unacceptable situation which is causing great distress for families who have been patiently waiting to be offered housing for many years. They are waiting to get an offer and they are being taken off the list.
A situation whereby a person may have to refuse a promotion in order to ensure that they do not rise slightly above the threshold is in complete contrast to the kind of employment innovation that the Government should be promoting, which I know the Minister of State is seriously interested in facilitating. My Labour Party colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, recently urged the Minister of State to highlight the Government's proposals regarding the existing thresholds. The Minister of State said that the Government intended to conduct a review of the thresholds which should have been made available by mid-2018 yet no such review has been published.
There appears to be no sense of urgency regarding this matter, despite the fact that many families have reached a point of utter desperation and fear becoming homeless. The Government continues to delay reviewing the existing thresholds, meanwhile housing prices rose by 12% in the past year. This has led to a situation whereby households may be slightly over the existing thresholds but are nowhere near the income levels required to actually purchase homes. This situation has reached crisis point. The Government's lack of urgency and the total absence of a strategy is simply unacceptable. Ultimately, a complete review of and subsequent increase in the income limits for qualification for social housing is urgently required. As matters stand, the limits are simply too low and have resulted in families being removed from housing lists. The level of distress this causes is shocking and none of us wants it to happen. We know intuitively that this is wrong and that it must be changed.
We simply cannot have situations where low income earners are refusing promotions in order to ensure that they remain on the housing list. Increasing house prices have made it impossible for many families to purchase homes, meanwhile there is no real affordable housing scheme in place. This situation is simply unsustainable and a complete review - alongside an increase in the income limits - must be carried out immediately.
Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for giving me the opportunity to clarify the position. On 1 April 2011, the Social Housing Assessment Regulations introduced a new standard procedure for assessing applicants for social housing in every housing authority. The regulations include maximum net income limits for each housing authority, in different bands according to the area, with income being defined and assessed according to a standard household means policy. Before the new system was put in place, there was considerable inconsistency in the approach taken by various local authorities. This was neither efficient nor fair and I imagine that is why the former Minister of State in this role, Deputy Penrose, made the change because it was not fair across the board and there were discrepancies in it.
The income bands, and the authority area assigned to each band, were based on an assessment of income needed to provide for a household's basic need plus a comparative analysis of the local rental cost of housing accommodation around the country. As a result, higher limits generally apply in the larger urban areas compared with other areas. This is the case in the Fingal County Council area, which has an income threshold of €35,000 for a single adult household. The €35,000 limit would correspond to a gross salary of more than €48,000 - which is some 30% above the average industrial wage. The limits also reflect a blanket increase of €5,000 introduced prior to the new system coming into operation in order to broaden the base from which social housing tenants are drawn and thereby promote sustainable communities. I agree with the Deputy that people should not be refusing jobs and that these limits should not be a deterrent to improving career or employment prospects. That is why the blanket increase was introduced.
Under the household means policy, which applies in all housing authority areas, net income for social housing assessment is defined as gross household income less income tax, pay-related social insurance, PRSI, and the universal social charge. Most payments received from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection are assessable. The policy provides for a range of income disregards and housing authorities also have discretion to decide to disregard income that is temporary, short-term or once-off in nature. I am not familiar with the individual case the Deputy outlined but I will check to see is there any scope there. FIS may not be a permanent payment for the family, it depends on how long they have had it. In general, it is not often a permanent payment. Perhaps it could be considered on appeal as a temporary or once-off income.
Given the cost to the State of providing social housing, it is considered prudent and fair to direct resources to those most in need of social housing support. I am conscious that Deputy Bríd Smith is in the House and that she has also been raising this issue. For the past two years, much of the funding and resources available were directed towards social housing and the emergency accommodation for people who are homeless. We are trying to move this approach into the area of affordable housing and to concentrate efforts there also.
As part of the broader agenda, a review of income eligibility for social housing supports has commenced. The Housing Agency is carrying out the detailed statistical work on behalf of the Department and I expect the results of this review to be available for publication later in the summer. I share the Deputy's frustration because I would like to have had this review completed before now. The matter has been raised by several Members, including Deputies Brendan Ryan and Bríd Smith and others. I committed to having this done. We should have that report with us before the end of the summer. One matter that will be examined as part of the review is the possibility of structuring social housing support in a way that improves the overall efficiency and equity of the system and does not discourage people from improving their circumstances when it comes to employment or career prospects.
4:40 pm
Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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Families in my constituency have been on the list for ten years and have now been removed for being a few hundred euro over the limit. Why is that? In one case, a mother returned to part-time work to help the family meet the increased rent of €1,100 a month. On one level, as the family is under pressure for rent the mother went back to work but then the family becomes ineligible for social housing. They have been told they have been removed from the list but they have not been told how much they are over the limit, making appealing the decision even more difficult. By their own calculations they are no more than a few hundred euro over the very modest limits and those limits were set in 2011.
Perversely, people who found themselves threatened by homelessness in recent times have managed to be on the housing assistance payment, HAP. People who may have been on the list at the same time as others have now gone into HAP and are in the system for ever. Due to the inefficiency of the system and the lack of housing and housing offers, that family has reached a point 12 years on where their income has increased slightly and now they are off the list. If they had been accepted onto HAP, and been lucky enough to get HAP, they would still be in the system. It is a case of either being under a limit and getting everything or being over a limit and getting nothing. We have to restructure that.
We need to increase the base levels and make them adequate for the current market. The cap of 2.5% per child up to four children, with a maximum of 10%, needs to be removed. If a family has six or eight kids, they need to get the benefit of that 2.5% of base level per child. We talked about FIS already and I refer to the list in item No. 7 on page 3 in respect of incomes which are not assessable. One thing the Minster of State can do straight away is to make FIS non-assessable. That is a no-brainer.
There needs to be a complete review of social housing eligibility because we are probably the only country in Europe which has assessment of income as the model. Many countries do not. We need to assess people's ability to provide housing for themselves rather than have an income point that decides if someone is either in or out. That is completely wrong. On clarifying what we need to do, while we are waiting for the review, the Minister of State needs to issue a directive to all local authorities that nobody should be taken off the list while the review is continuing. That is a simple measure that can be done.
Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy and I will take on board all the points he made. I will bring them back to our officials when the review comes back from the agency and we will look at what is assessable or not. He has raised a few issues that are worth looking at. I am satisfied that the current income limits and the current scheme are generally fair and equitable. I think people will agree that it is across the board and that it deals with most cases. I accept that in some cases, it leaves households outside the income brackets but generally, it does identify those households unable to provide accommodation from their own resources. The review is about seeing whether the limits need to be changed. It also gives us a timely way to look at all of the different income limits and income sources that are assessable.
The Government is aware of the challenges faced by households in meeting their housing costs. It is the subject to debate here week in and week out for the past couple of years. Dealing with this is the Government's number one priority. We accept that the supply of housing will help all of this but it also is quite clear that the property and employment markets have changed dramatically over the last couple of years. The limits were set in 2011 and we recognise the importance of having them reviewed to reflect that reality as well. We have acted to support those households a little above the income eligibility thresholds for social housing supports.
In February this year, a new loan offering known as the Rebuilding Ireland home loan was launched. The new fixed interest rate loan will help middle-income households, earning up to €50,000 as a single person or €75,000 as a couple, to purchase new or second-hand properties in a suitable price range. Over 50% of the applicants for that are qualifying and are being approved for a loan to help them get a house. My colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has also recently placed a new scheme for affordable purchase on a statutory footing. My Department is working with the key local authorities and the Housing Agency to identify sites that would see a significant quantity of affordable homes being delivered on local authority owned land. We have been working with them for the past year to bring forward the plans on public lands to be able to deliver affordable houses as well. It all beginning to align and the focus in this part - now that we have got the social housing system changed - is to move on to adapt affordable housing and looking at the income limits.