Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 60: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to abolish the 30-hour rule in respect of rent supplement. [43844/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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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. In recent years, a significant number of people have come to rely on rent supplement for extended periods, including people on local authority housing waiting lists. One of the measures introduced to address the issue of long-term rent supplementation is the rental accommodation scheme (RAS) which gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the long-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for eighteen months or more.

Rent supplement is not payable where a person or their spouse or partner is in full-time employment, that is for 30 hours or more a week. However, provision was made in 2007 whereby a person on rent supplement, who is accepted as eligible for accommodation under RAS, may return to full-time work, subject to a means test, without losing entitlement to their rent supplement payment.

The 30-hour per week limit has been in place since 1977 when the SWA scheme came into operation. The use of 30 hours as the part-time limit for SWA is designed to be as advantageous as possible to individuals returning to the employment market without including those in full-time employment, thus reflecting the scheme's original purpose of a short-term income support payment. Support for those in full-time employment and who require long term housing support are provided by local authority housing initiatives which include RAS and other social housing placement schemes. I have no plans to remove the 30 hour rule for the rent supplement scheme.