Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason mortgage supplement has been withdrawn in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44643/08]

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.

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 Executive has advised that the person concerned is not entitled to mortgage interest supplement as her combined income from employment, one-parent family payment and family income supplement is sufficient to meet the total mortgage interest on the loan. If the person concerned is not satisfied with the decision of the community welfare officer it is open to her to appeal against the decision to the Executive's designated Appeals Office.