Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 147: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will investigate the reinstatement of the maximum rate of rent subsidy in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [24273/09]

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 as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.

The purpose of the rent supplement 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.

As part of Budget 2009, the minimum weekly contribution which a person is expected to contribute towards their rent was increased from €13 to €18 with effect from January 2009. The recent Supplementary Budget provided that the weekly minimum contribution be further increased from €18 to €24 with effect from 1 June 2009 and that payments currently being made to existing rent supplement tenants be reduced by 8% from the same date. These measures account for the reduction in the rent supplement payment of the person concerned this year.

Each existing recipient of rent supplement was advised in advance, by letter, of the particular reductions being made to their rent supplement payment from 1 June 2009. This letter also advised that if the recipient wanted to talk to their landlord to seek a reduction in rent, the Department's letter could be shown to a landlord as evidence of their reduced rent supplement payment.

The most recent data published by the CSO show that rents in the private sector have fallen by almost 11% since November 2008 and by almost 20% in the past year. It is essential that state support for tenants who form a substantial section of the rental market, does not give rise to inflated rental prices.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 148: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Cork has been refused rent allowance; the way this decision was reached; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24289/09]

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

Rent supplement is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of SWA appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution of €24, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €24 because they are also required to contribute, towards their accommodation costs, any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate.

The Executive has advised that the person concerned was refused rent supplement as her total income from one-parent family payment, occupational injuries benefit and maintenance is sufficient to meet her accommodation costs. This decision has been upheld by a HSE designated Appeals Officer. It is open to the person concerned to appeal against this decision to the Department's independent Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO). To date no such appeal has been received.