Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 154: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the steps that are being taken regarding the longevity of rent allowance to recipients and if there is a defined cut off point in qualifying for this payment. [36855/10]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 155: To ask the Minister for Social Protection how often long-term rent allowance recipients have their payments reviewed, in view of the changes in the rental market in recent years to ensure value for money for the Department and to ensure that inflated rental prices are not paid to landlords [36856/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 154 and 155 together.

The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term 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. Payment of rent supplement will continue as long as the person meets the qualifying conditions and satisfies the means test. The overall aim of rent supplement is to provide short term assistance and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer. There are currently over 96,000 tenants benefiting from a rent supplement payment - an increase of 60 per cent since the end of 2007. Over 44,300 have been in payment for 18 months or more.

The rental accommodation scheme (RAS), which was introduced in 2004, highlights 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 show that a total of 28,939 transfers from rent supplement to local authorities have occurred since 2005: 15,986 rent supplement recipients to RAS and a further 12,953 recipients to other social housing options. In total, 14,000 recipients were transferred to RAS and social housing in 2008 and 2009; achieving targets set for RAS transfers for these years. The current target for 2010 is for a total of 8,000 rent supplement tenants to be provided with a housing solution by local authorities.

In consultation with the Department, the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government has approved a number of pilot programmes in different local authorities to increase the flow of transfers. These include allowing applicants for RAS to seek out their own properties which, subject to compliance with the normal conditions and the agreement of the landlord, may then be taken into the leasing programme. Approved housing bodies under the leasing initiative have also been advised that they can seek applicants for social housing support directly from households in long term receipt of rent supplement as part of a of choice-based lettings approach to allocations.

The Department continues to work closely with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and is represented on a number of RAS implementation groups. The purpose of these Groups is to ensure that the 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. It is essential that State support for rents are kept under review, reflect current market conditions, and do not distort the market in any way. The use of maximum rent limits established for each county achieves this purpose. The most recent rent limit review established new maximum rent limits effective from June 2010. The new limits were benchmarked against the most up to date market data available at that time. The emphasis of the review was to ensure that value for money is achieved whilst at the same time ensuring that people on rent supplement can obtain suitable accommodation within the private rented market. The new limits applied immediately to all new rent supplement applications and for all existing rent supplement claims once they were reviewed or renewed by the relevant community welfare officer.

Allied with achieving value for money for the Exchequer it is also necessary to ensure that low income families are not paying 'distorted' rents, above the market rate, due to higher than required maximum rent limits for a given area. The outcome of the review was that maximum rent limits were reduced by a weighted average of 4%, the majority of reductions centred on two and three bedroom properties, assisting low income families with more affordable accommodation.

The reduction of rent limits will not impact on rent supplement recipients' disposable incomes. The minimum contribution, which is currently €24, is the amount that every applicant must pay from their own resources for their accommodation needs; this has not been altered in any way.