Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 279: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to substantially reduce income thresholds for eligibility for social housing and to increase the age threshold to 65 years whereby older citizens can apply for the senior citizens housing list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5850/11]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to reduce the income thresholds for eligibility for social housing; the numbers of persons now on local authority housing lists that will be disqualified from eligibility as a result of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6029/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 279 and 280 together.

The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2009, provides for a new process of housing needs assessment for applicants for social housing support. Until now there have been different practices in housing authorities regarding the way in which applicants for social housing support had their income means-tested. The Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, which came into force on 1 April, 2011, standardise both the income limits and how income is defined.

The income bands reflect the cost of private rented accommodation in different parts of the country. They are expressed in terms of a maximum net income threshold for a single-person household. For households of more than one person, the net income threshold is increased to take account of additional adults and children in the household.

Net income is defined in the Household Means Policy approved under the Regulations as gross income of all kinds (including most forms of social welfare benefits or assistance) less income tax, PRSI and the Universal Social Charge. Child Benefit is also disregarded as is most temporary income.

The Social Housing Assessment (Amendment) Regulations, made on 29 March 2011, amend the original regulations and provide for a general increase of €5,000 in the income bands. The new increased limits are €35,000, €30,000 and €25,000 for a single-person household, depending on the local authority area concerned.

The overall impact of the new arrangements, and of the amending regulations, is expected to be an increase in the number of households eligible for social housing support. I acknowledge that this may lead to a rise in waiting lists but I believe that it is important to broaden the base from which social housing tenants are drawn, in order to promote sustainable communities.

As regards older citizens, under previous arrangements, authorities used different definitions of older persons for purposes of social housing support. The new Regulations provide for a single national indicator, based on the commonly accepted figure of 65 years. While this is a primary indicator of particular accommodation requirements for those in the older age bracket, my Department's guidance to housing authorities makes it clear that individual households should be allocated the social housing support most appropriate to their particular needs. This approach gives housing authorities discretion in individual cases in the provision of housing support, in accordance with their allocation policies.