Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 292: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if a person (details supplied) will be allowed to retain their rent allowance while attending a third level course. [12082/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Rent supplements are available to eligible people through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department has any function in determining entitlement in individual cases.

Under section 190(1) of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2001, people in full-time education are not eligible normally to receive assistance, including rent supplements, under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. However, there is provision for retention of rent supplement by qualifying social welfare scheme recipients, including people on one-parent family payment, in the specific situation where they resume full-time education after a defined period with the assistance of the back to education allowance scheme. People participating in approved courses under this facility receive a standard weekly rate of payment equivalent to the maximum rate of their relevant social welfare payment and may retain any secondary benefits, such as rent supplements, which may have been in payment prior to participating in the scheme.

The Health Service Executive was contacted regarding this case and has advised that the person concerned is in receipt of the correct amount of rent supplement based on her current means and circumstances. If the person concerned wishes to apply for the back-to-education allowance or takes up other education or training opportunities, she should contact her local community welfare officer to clarify her continuing entitlement to rent supplement. It is not possible to establish her possible entitlement in advance of her contacting her local community welfare officer to discuss her particular circumstances.