Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if persons who have fled their private home due to domestic violence are entitled to rent allowance; if it is correct that they are refused rent allowance because they are not on a local authority housing list and the local authority will not accept them in view of the fact that they are still legally part owner of the original family home; the assistance that can be given; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16934/13]

Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the provisions and supports there are in place to deal with women who have been forced to leave their homes and seek rented accommodation due to domestic violence; if community welfare officers still have discretionary powers to award rent allowance or rent supplement when dealing with cases of this nature; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17006/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 638 and 646 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 86,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €403 million for 2013. A person may also qualify for rent supplement where an assessment of housing need has been carried out within the 12 months preceding the date of claim and the person is deemed by a local authority to be eligible for and in need of social housing support.

In all other cases, a person who wishes to apply for rent supplement is 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.

However, where a claimant’s safety and wellbeing are at risk due to domestic violence Department officials operating the rent supplement scheme have discretionary powers to expedite the award of a payment to the person in question.

Policy in relation to the assessment of housing need is a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.