Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 238: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the fact that when persons in receipt of social welfare payments opt to change from book to direct bank payments, they lose a week's payment; the reason bank payments are made in arrears while book payments are made in advance; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the loss of a week's payment is a cause of hardship to persons dependent on social welfare payments; if he will take steps to redress the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6534/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides people receiving social welfare payments with a range of payment options. People who choose payment of pensions by electronic fund transfer, EFT, to personal bank accounts do so on a voluntary basis. The majority of those who opt for the facility do so at the start of their claim and are paid on a regular weekly basis once their claim is put into payment.

Customers who opt to change from payable order book to EFT move to a different payment cycle as a result. The difference in payment cycles has applied to EFT and book payments for some years. Payments for pension customers paid by EFT were changed from two weeks to one week in arrears in November 2004. Any further change in this regard would have short-term financial implications and would have to be considered in a budgetary context. All pensioners, however, receive a payment each week and, regardless of payment method, each person receives the same quantum of payments over the lifetime of his or her claim.

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 239: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will review the entitlement of persons (details supplied) in Dublin 12 to the supplementary allowance. [6607/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides assistance to eligible people whose means are insufficient to meet their basic needs.

The Dublin and mid-Leinster region of the executive has advised that the people concerned had been in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance while they were certified as absent from work due to illness. This payment was made to them as they had insufficient social insurance contributions to qualify for receipt of disability benefit from my Department. In the course of a review of their continued entitlement to supplementary welfare allowance, the executive requested a medical report from their doctor. Based on this report, the executive considered that the people concerned were fit to resume work and decided that they were no longer entitled to supplementary welfare allowance. Their payments were terminated accordingly and they were advised by the executive that they would be expected to return to employment or to apply to my Department for unemployment assistance.

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 240: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will report on the guidelines given to the Health Service Executive in relation to the awarding of the supplementary welfare rent supplement to applicants from community care areas 7 and 8 in Dublin; the amount which an eligible applicant can obtain in normal circumstances and all things considered; the maximum rent for a property allowed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6620/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of rent or mortgage interest supplements to assist eligible people who are unable to meet their housing costs from their own resources and do not have accommodation available to them from another source.

Supplements are payable subject to a means test. They are calculated to ensure that, after payment of rent or mortgage interest, an eligible person has income equal to the rate of basic supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his or her family circumstances, less a minimum contribution. The minimum contribution is €13 per week, which each recipient is required to pay from his or her own resources. There is a statutory upper limit on the level of rent an applicant may incur and still qualify for a rent supplement. The limits take the household size and the area into account.

Details of these statutory maximum rent levels appropriate to the different family sizes in Dublin and adjacent county areas are set out in the following tabular statement. There have been no special rent supplement guidelines issued by my Department to community welfare staff in the specific Dublin districts identified by the Deputy.