Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 232: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Dublin has not been granted rent allowance; if a person in such circumstances is entitled to rent allowance; if it is the case that if a person moves from one rented accommodation to another they are precluded from obtaining further rent allowance; if a person who surrenders rented accommodation in another jurisdiction, in this case Scotland, is precluded from receiving rent allowance here, despite the fact that they are seeking work here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34723/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE), as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.

The Executive has advised that the person concerned is in receipt of a weekly payment of supplementary welfare allowance while awaiting the outcome of a claim to Jobseeker's allowance. It has been decided by the Executive that he is not entitled to rent supplement, having voluntarily surrendered local authority accommodation already available to him in Scotland. Statutory provisions allow for the non payment of rent supplement where a person vacates housing provided by a local authority, without good cause for doing so.

The Executive considers that when the person concerned moved to this state, he vacated accommodation available to him in Scotland, without good cause. The Executive further advises that the person has been afforded a right of appeal to the HSE Appeals Office against the decision to refuse rent supplement.