Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when rent support will be offered to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22011/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The position remains as advised in Parliamentary Question No. 317 which I answered for the Deputy on 19th May 2009. The Executive has advised that payment of rent supplement and arrears due from 1 January 2009 was made to the person concerned on 30 March 2009. Payment has also been made in respect of the months of April and May.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 159: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason the first €95.23 in maintenance is taken into account for calculating rent allowance; if this discourages one parent families from declaring the fathers name and maintenance payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21920/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The means test for the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, through which rent supplement is provided, requires that all types of household income, including maintenance payments for a lone parent and his/her children, must be taken into account in determining a person's entitlement under the scheme.

Rent supplement is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to their family circumstances less a weekly minimum contribution of €18, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €18 because recipients are also required, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate towards their accommodation costs.

A person who claims a one-parent family payment is required to seek maintenance from her/his spouse or the other parent of the child. These maintenance payments are assessed as means for the purpose of determining entitlement to a one-parent family payment. However, vouched housing costs of up to €95.23 per week (rent or mortgage) are disregarded in establishing the rate of one-parent family payment due. Given that up to €95.23 per week of maintenance payments is disregarded in the means test for the one-parent family payment to allow for housing costs, maintenance of this amount is assessable in determining the appropriate level of rent supplement payable, as the amount of rent supplementation is based on the net amount that a person has available to meet their accommodation costs from their own resources.

Where a person has weekly maintenance payments of more than €95.23, the first €75 a week together with 25% of any additional maintenance above €75 can be disregarded for means assessment purposes. This is to ensure that the family benefits from the extra maintenance income up to that level before it affects their entitlement to rent supplement.

Overall, the means assessment rules are designed to give an incentive to lone parents to seek maintenance payments to improve their household income position, while ensuring that families in that situation have access to the appropriate levels of rent supplementation to meet their accommodation needs. The department is not aware of any evidence to suggest that these measures discourage one parent families from declaring the name of the other parent or details of maintenance payments.