Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 321: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will clarify the circumstances in which people on community employment can retain rent supplement; and if these rules differ for lone parents or families of different size and make-up. [22352/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Rent supplement is calculated to ensure that an eligible person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his or her family circumstances, less a minimum contribution of €13 which each recipient is required to pay from his or her own resources. Many recipients pay more than €13 because they are also required to contribute a portion of any additional assessable means over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate.

Persons participating in community employment (CE) can continue to receive rent supplement subject to their satisfying the standard means assessment rules. Since June of this year, under improvements provided for in Budget 2007, where a person has additional income in excess of the standard supplementary welfare allowance rate, the first €75 of such additional income together with 25% of any additional income above €75 is disregarded for means assessment purposes. This ensures that those returning to work or participating in training schemes are better off as a result of taking up such an opportunity. The assessment of additional income of participants on a training course, such as the community enterprise (CE) scheme, has always been a feature of the rent supplement scheme.

Under the rent supplement scheme, the rules governing the assessment of income derived from participation in CE schemes are the same irrespective of family size and composition. While jobseeker's allowance is replaced by CE payment when recipients participate in CE schemes, a lone parent may participate on a CE scheme and retain a considerable portion of his/her one-parent family payment; therefore, a lone parent has a higher assessable income for rent supplement purposes and consequently contributes more towards his/her rent.

Lone parents participating on CE schemes are not penalised for doing so. For example, a lone parent with one child living in Dublin with rent of €200 per week, whose sole income is a one-parent family payment of €207.80 per week, would ordinarily receive rent supplement of €187 per week resulting in a net income after paying rent of €194.80 per week. If s/he participates in a CE scheme his/her total income before rent supplement and before paying rent would rise to €402.50 per week. In these circumstances, s/he would be entitled to €97.22 rent supplement and his/her income after paying rent would be €299.72 per week. S/he would be €104.92 per week better off for having taken up a CE place.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of the 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.