Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 125: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps he will take to fulfil the commitment in the Agreed Programme for Government to urgently examine the development of a mortgage support system for people on low incomes in order to reduce long-term reliance on rent supplement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20809/07]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 168: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the main findings of the Government's working group on the rent supplement scheme; the changes he will make to the rent supplement scheme as a result; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20726/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 125 and 168 together.

The purpose of rent supplement, administered under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source.

In recent years, a significant number of people have come to rely on rent supplements for extended periods, including people on local authority housing waiting lists. The numbers claiming the supplement has grown considerably from 42,683 in 2000 to just under 60,000 at the end of December 2006. At the end of August 2007 some 58,675 people were in receipt of a supplement. The scheme has also witnessed an increase in the duration of entitlement with over 32,000 recipients now getting a supplement for 18 months or more.

One of the measures introduced to address this is the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) which among other things gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the long-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for eighteen months or more.

These individual needs are met through a range of approaches including the traditional range of social housing options, the voluntary housing sector, and in particular, a new public/private partnership arrangement to provide rental housing for households with long-term housing needs.

Latest figures from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government indicate that to date, local authorities have transferred some 4,840 rent supplement cases to RAS units. 2,677 of these are in the voluntary and co-operative housing sector and 2,163 are in private rental accommodation. The Housing authorities have also transferred a further 3,792 recipients to other social housing options. The objective under RAS is that local authorities will have completed the transfer of rent supplement recipients with long-term housing needs to their care by the end of 2009.

Budget 2007 provided for improvements in the qualifying conditions for rent supplement which will support the transfer to RAS of rent supplement tenants who wish to take up full-time employment. Under the new measures, introduced in June of this year, rent supplement may continue to be paid to a person who engages in full time employment, subject to their satisfying the standard means testing conditions, where they have been accepted as having a long-term housing need under RAS.

Budget 2007 measures also provided for improvements in the disregards that apply to assessing additional income for rent supplement purposes. From June the first €75 of additional income, that is, income above the standard rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to a person's circumstances, is disregarded for rent supplement purposes, with any additional income above €75 is assessed at 75%. These measures are positive steps in assisting tenants in achieving a long-term housing solution for their needs while also increasing the financial return from employment for those returning to work or moving to full-time employment.

A review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme was carried out as part of the Government's Expenditure Review Initiative series of Programme Evaluation. The resulting report was published in November 2006 and included an examination of the rent supplement scheme. The report recommended that RAS should be vigorously pursued to address housing needs of people in long term supplementation. In addition to improving the housing situation for people on low incomes and delivering better value for money for exchequer, full implementation of these arrangements would allow the rent supplement scheme return to its original objective of being a short-term income support scheme, with fewer than half of the current number of recipients.

The report also identified a number of issues relating to the incentives under the rent supplement scheme for those wishing to take up an employment opportunity. As I have already outlined, Budget 2007 has now addressed these issues.

I am conscious that the rent supplement scheme has become a form of social housing in its own right and for this reason, I am anxious that all avenues are explored as regards ways of providing support for those on long-term rent supplementation particularly as regards their securing home ownership. Any further changes to the rent supplement scheme including the question of mortgage support needs to be considered in the context of overall housing policy, which comes within the remit of my colleague the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government. That Department already provides a range of housing supports through local government initiatives, including RAS. Any further initiatives in relation to mortgage support will be framed by that Department in the context of its "delivering homes — sustaining communities" strategy published earlier this year.

I intend to keep the rent supplement scheme under review and my Department will be working closely with the Department of the Environment Heritage and Local Government in ensuring that RAS meets its objective of enabling rent supplement to return to its original role of a short-term income support.