Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 437: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Kildare has received a statement in regard to rent subsidy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21999/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Rent supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Rent supplements are subject to a means test. In addition to a minimum contribution of €13, which a recipient is required to pay from his or her own resources, each applicant is also required to contribute any additional assessable means he or she has over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate towards his or her rent.

As I stated in my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 443 of 14 June 2005, the person concerned has incurred an overpayment of rent supplement as she failed to inform the Health Service Executive of a significant increase in the level of her household income over the past year arising from her participation on a FÁS programme. The Dublin-mid-Leinster area of the executive has advised that, on the basis of her current means, the person concerned is not entitled to rent supplement and that it has terminated payment to her. It wrote to her recently to confirm the level of the overpayment involved and has asked her to contact her local community welfare officer with a view to making arrangements to repay the amount due. To date, she has not made contact with the community welfare officer.