Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 169: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the cost to the Exchequer of the rental subsidy allowance scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28905/07]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 170: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on whether the rent subsidy allowance scheme is assisting in creating a poverty trap; if he will review the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28906/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 169 and 170 together.

Expenditure on rent supplement in 2006 was €389m. Estimated expenditure for 2007 is €392m. 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.

Budget 2007 measures provided improvements in the disregards that apply to assessing additional income for rent supplement purposes. From June 2007 the first €75 of additional income, is disregarded for rent supplement purposes, with any additional income above €75 assessed at 75%. These measures are a positive step in increasing the financial return from employment for those returning to work.

A measure to address more long term accommodation needs has been the introduction of the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) which gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the long-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for eighteen months or more.

Budget 2007 also provided that rent supplement recipients considered eligible for RAS by their local authorities can return to full-time employment, qualify for the standard income disregards for the first time, and may retain rent supplement subject to satisfying the other qualifying conditions of the scheme. These provisions, when taken together, support rent supplement recipients in the transition from welfare to work while at the same time reducing their dependency on primary welfare payments.