Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the relationship between the rent allowance section of her Department and local authority housing departments; the new procedures that have been put in place in relation to the assessment of housing applicants seeking rent supplement from her Department; her views on whether the systems in place are adequate to enable fast and efficient processing of genuine applications for rent allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38813/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide 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. The overall aim is to provide short term assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer. There are currently over 90,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €436 million for 2012.

At the time of application for a rent supplement, the claimant must: have been 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) or accommodation for homeless persons or in an institution (or any combination of these) for a period of 183 days within the preceding 12 months of the date of claim for rent supplement, or have an assessment of housing need carried out within the 12 months preceding the date of claim and have been deemed to be eligible for and in need of social housing support.

In all other cases, a person who wishes to apply for rent supplement will be referred, in the first instance, for an assessment of eligibility for social housing support by a housing authority. Only when the person has been assessed as being eligible for and in need of social housing support, does the person become eligible for consideration for rent supplement. There has been no recent change to these eligibility criteria.

The timescale for determining applications is dependent, among other things, on the availability of the required information, such as details of the applicant's income, bank statements etc. In addition, some aspects of the application are inevitably time consuming and delays can occur where investigations such as home visits or third party evidence are required. Delays can also arise if the applicant is slow to respond to requests for additional information.

The provision of a prompt service is a major objective for the Department’s staff dealing with applications for rent supplement. However, this is tempered by the necessity to ensure that every case is fully investigated and that all cases are dealt with in a consistent and fair manner. I am satisfied that the Department’s staff dealing with rent supplement applications make every effort to ensure claims are processed in an efficient manner.