The people I meet who are on rent supplement need that supplement. I meet many single parents in particular who find themselves caught by the fact that if they work they cannot claim rent allowance, but if they give up rent allowance they cannot survive and cannot pay rent. When this is viewed against the background of a mounting housing crisis, it is possible to see the full extent of the savagery of this cut. The Minister stated that the purpose of the rent supplement like other social welfare programmes is to meet income maintenance needs and not long-term housing needs. While this may be true, rent allowance and rent supplement have become necessary elements of people's housing needs and more so in recent years when, as a result of the Government's mismanagement of housing, fewer people can afford to buy a house and have to rent at a time when rents are increasing. People on low incomes, particularly single parents, in need of rent allowance are the ones being hit.