Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 128: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, further to Question No. 546 of 26 January 2005, the reason the maximum household income of €317.43 per week was not increased for community employment participants in order for them to qualify for the tapered rent supplement rate. [3217/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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While the €317.43 income limit to which the Deputy refers has not been increased recently, other improvements, which I identified in my previous reply, have been made to the arrangements for assessing the amount of rent supplement payable to those participating in community employment schemes.

I consider that the current eligibility thresholds and disregards, together with improvements in the standard rules of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, ensure that people continue to have a financial incentive to take up employment opportunities. For example, a lone parent with one child in Dublin is usually entitled to rent supplement of €89.50 per week when taking up a community employment place and is €60 per week better off as a result of participating in a CE scheme. On this basis, I have no plans to increase the income threshold in question.

The effectiveness of these threshold and income disregard arrangements will be considered further in the context of a review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which my Department is undertaking during 2005.