Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 432: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when full mortgage support will be granted to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41311/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes mortgage interest supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. A mortgage interest supplement provides short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence.

The Executive has advised that a mortgage interest supplement of €660.30 per month has been awarded to the person concerned from the 24 November 2008. The Executive has further advised that the mortgage interest supplement is, as an exceptional measure, being paid at a rate which is higher than that which the person concerned would normally be entitled to receive, because of the particular circumstances that apply in this case at present.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes mortgage interest supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. A mortgage interest supplement provides short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence.

Mortgage interest supplement is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of mortgage interest, has an income equal to the rate of SWA appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution, currently €13, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €13 because recipients are also required, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic SWA rate towards their accommodation costs.

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 mortgage interest supplement purposes, with any additional income above €75 assessed at 75%. This measure ensures that people have a financial incentive to take up education or training opportunities or return to employment.

The Executive has advised that the person concerned had been awarded a mortgage interest supplement of €466.20 per month from 1 August 2008. She has since been awarded family income supplement of €150 per week from 1 October 2008. When this additional income is taken into account the revised rate of mortgage interest supplement payable is €194.07 per month from 1 October 2008.