Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 260: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will examine the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 11. [34256/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, 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 €24, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €24 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 his/her 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.

This disregard is then assessable in determining the appropriate level of rent supplement payable, as the amount of rent supplement 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 per 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 supplement to meet their accommodation needs.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has advised that the person concerned is in receipt of her full entitlement to rent supplement based on her income from one-parent family payment and maintenance. If the person concerned is not satisfied with the decision of the HSE she can appeal the decision to the HSE Appeals Office.