Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 304: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that community welfare officers are using their personal discretion to refuse persons rent supplement on the basis of their turning down a local authority housing offer; and her plans to put in place strict guidelines and criteria for this practice. [24107/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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It is a condition of any applicant's entitlement to a Rent Supplement that they have not refused to accept within any continuous 12 month period a second offer of accommodation provided by either a housing authority (including accommodation offered under the Rental Accommodation Scheme) or any approved body by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government for the purposes of section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 (No. 18 of 1992) i.e. the Capital Assistance Housing scheme.

Where a Rent Supplement claimant refuses a second offer of accommodation within a 12 month period the Community Welfare Service is obliged to cease payment of Rent Supplement for a period of 12 months from the date of refusal.