Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 146: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will examine the case of a person (details supplied) who was refused rent supplement on the basis that they had vacated local authority housing; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19282/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In order to qualify for a payment under the rent supplement scheme a person must first satisfy a number of qualifying conditions. The Health Service Executive (HSE) has advised that the persons concerned were refused rent supplement for a number of reasons: · they vacated accommodation provided by a housing authority without good cause for doing so, · they are not assessed by the housing authority as having a housing need, and · they were not residing in private rented accommodation, where at the commencement of the tenancy the person could have reasonably afforded the rent and has experienced a substantial change in his or her circumstances where they are now unable to pay the rent, for 183 days in the previous 12 months.

The persons concerned appealed the decision to the HSE Appeals Office and to the Social Welfare Appeals Office but the decision to refuse rent supplement was upheld on both occasions. The persons concerned should contact their local authority in relation to their housing needs.