Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 320: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that some community welfare officers are refusing to grant exceptional needs payments to persons in receipt of social housing support via the leasing initiative for the purposes of purchasing essential household items such as white goods, beds, floor covering and so on despite the fact that the landlords involved in these leasing agreements are prohibited from providing such essential goods as part of their leasing agreement with the relevant local authority; if this is her policy position or that of individual Health Service Executive areas, and if the latter, if she supports such a policy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27571/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Health Service Executive (HSE) may make a single payment to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. Those who qualify are normally in receipt of a social welfare or HSE payment.

The principal consideration in making a single payment of SWA to address a particular need is that the need to be met must be 'exceptional'. Payments should arise only under abnormal conditions and should not become a regular or standard practice. Thus, an exceptional needs payment (ENP) should be a single payment to meet an unforeseen and/or special need which cannot be met from a client's basic income. The use of ENPs and every such decision must be based on the careful consideration of all the circumstances of an individual case.

However, it is not considered appropriate that ENPs should be paid towards the costs of furnishing private rented accommodation. In this regard, my Department has advised the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government that local authorities should not seek to have long term leased properties furnished by way of ENPs.