Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 318: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of people in receipt of rent supplement on a per county basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35261/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The number of people in receipt of rent supplement on a per county basis is provided in the tabular statement below.

Rent Supplement Recipients By County –

End September 2009

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 320: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number and percentage of people in receipt of rent supplement who are eligible for transfer to the rental accommodation scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35263/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 321: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of people in receipt of rent supplement for more than 18 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35264/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 322: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason for the delay in transfer to the rental accommodation scheme for people in receipt of rent supplement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35265/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 320 to 322, inclusive, together.

There are currently almost 91,000 tenants benefiting from a rent supplement payment - an increase of 52% since the end of 2007. Over half of these recipients have been in payment for more than one year while over 32,000 (35%) have been in payment for 18 months or more. The Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS), which was introduced in 2004, gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the longer term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for 18 months or more. Details of these cases are notified regularly by the Department to the local authorities. Local authorities meet the housing needs of these individuals through a range of approaches including the traditional range of social housing options, the voluntary housing sector and, in particular, RAS.

Latest figures from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government indicate that to date, local authorities have transferred almost 12,000 rent supplement cases to RAS units. In addition, housing authorities have also transferred over 10,400 recipients to other social housing options, a total of over 22,400 transfers since 2005. Almost 7,000 recipients were transferred in 2008. While progress in relation to RAS was initially slower than expected, the pace of delivery has improved significantly and in 2009 a target has been set of transferring an additional 7,000 households from rent supplement.

In addition to this official target, due to the numbers of unsold affordable stock around the country, an opportunity has been created to make use of some of these properties for RAS and it is expected that additional transfers may be possible in 2009, above that provided for by the 2009 target. The position regarding the availability of property is monitored on an ongoing basis, given the current market condition, and there may be an opportunity to achieve further transfers.

The changes made in Budget 2009 to better align the minimum weekly contribution required from tenants under the rent supplement scheme with that under RAS should also encourage more people to take up RAS offers. The Department continues to work closely with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in ensuring that RAS meets its objective of catering for those on long term rent supplementation while enabling rent supplement to return to its original role of a short-term income support.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 323: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount lost in rent supplement deposits per year for the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35266/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, an exceptional needs payment (ENP) may be made to help meet an essential once-off cost, such as a payment of a rent deposit, which the applicant is unable to meet out of his/her own resources.

There is no automatic entitlement to this payment and each application is determined by the Executive based on the particular circumstances of the case taking, account of the nature and extent of the need. Such payments are confined to occurrences which the Executive considers to be unexpected, unforeseen or exceptional. In general, such payments are made to the tenant and only paid occasionally to the landlord where the tenant requests that the payment be made direct to the landlord. The tabular statement below shows the number of exceptional needs payments made in respect of rent deposits in each year from 2004 to date, the average cost of such payments and total expenditure.

If the landlord or tenant terminates the tenancy the tenant can use the returned deposit to secure a new tenancy. If a tenant has a legitimate grievance in relation to the refund of a rent deposit which they have paid to their landlord, they may apply to the Private Residential Tenancies Board to have the dispute resolved through the board's dispute resolution process. Every effort is made to ensure that payment of rent deposit is only made once in an individual case by checking computer systems to identify if any previous deposit had been paid. In general, multiple rent deposits are not paid to the same person. In these circumstances, there is no evidence to indicate that rent deposits have been lost to any significant degree in the past five years.

Number of and Expenditure on Exceptional Needs Payments in respect of Rent Deposits, 2007 and 2008

* To 9 Oct 2009.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 325: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be approved and awarded jobseeker's allowance. [35294/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A Deciding Officer, following a review, has awarded jobseeker's allowance to the person concerned at the weekly rate of €104.30 from 25 June 2009. He has been assessed with means of €100.00 derived from self employment. A payment of €1,599.30 covering the period from 25 June 2009 to 13 October 2009 has issued to him. If he is dissatisfied with the outcome of this review he should contact his local Social Welfare Office and his appeal will be forwarded to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office for determination.