Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the saving that would be achieved from increasing the minimum contribution for rent supplement by €4 weekly, €8 for couples; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49263/12]

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 approximately 90,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €436 million for 2012.

Rent supplement is calculated to ensure that the person, after payment of rent, has an income equal to the basic supplementary welfare allowance rate, less a specified weekly minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. The minimum contribution is €30 per week for single people and €35 per week for couples.

An increase in the minimum contribution of €4 per week for single people and €8 per week for couples would lead to an annual saving of €23.4 million.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the saving that would be achieved from allowing only single persons under 25 years shared accommodation under the rent supplement scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49264/12]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the saving that would be achieved from allowing only allow single persons under 24 shared accommodation under the rent supplement scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49265/12]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the saving that would be achieved from allowing only allow single persons under 23 shared accommodation under the rent supplement scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49266/12]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the saving that would be achieved from allowing only allow single persons under 22 years shared accommodation under the rent supplement scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49267/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to answer Questions Nos. 207 to 210, inclusive, together.

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 approximately 90,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €436 million for 2012. The number of people age under 25 years and currently in receipt of rent supplement is approximately 10,000. Statistics are not available on the numbers of these customers who are currently residing in shared accommodation. Therefore, it is not possible to provide the estimated savings requested by the Deputy.