Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Question 305: To ask the Minister for Social Protection when she intends to publish a circular to clarify the changes in the minimum contributions that tenants on rent allowance will be required to pay to landlords or voluntary housing groups; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3437/12]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 352: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons affected by the increase in the minimum contribution for single tenants. [3603/12]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 353: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the social impact the increase in the minimum contribution for single tenants is having on many people's living standards. [3604/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 305, 352 and 353 together.

Rent supplement provides short-term 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. Since 2005, rent supplement expenditure has increased from €369 million to a provisional outturn of €503 million in 2011. The number of persons claiming the allowance increased from almost 60,200 persons in 2005 to over 96,800 as at end 2011, a 61% increase.

The difference between the minimum contribution paid by households under the rent supplement scheme and that paid under the differential rents scheme administered by local authorities has been a barrier to the transfer of rent supplement recipients to local authority accommodation.

The additional weekly contribution payable by a one adult household under local authority accommodation ranges from €22 to €34 per week with an average of approximately €27. Budget 2012 has increased the minimum contribution for this category on rent supplement from €24 to €30 per week. Approximately 75% of all rent supplement tenancies are a one adult household.

The additional weekly contribution payable by coupled households (with no children) in local authority accommodation ranges from €49 to €66 per week with an average of approximately €53. Budget 2012 has also introduced a new rate of minimum contribution for couples on rent supplement of €35 per week. A circular advising staff of the increase in the minimum contribution payable in respect of rent and mortgage interest supplement issued to staff administering the supplementary welfare allowance scheme on 22 December 2011.

These measures will more closely align the minimum contribution payable by households under the rent supplement scheme with those of local authorities. These changes will remove the disincentives for households to transfer to local authority housing.