Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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83. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if rent supplement is payable to a person in receipt of the back to work self employment allowance; and if not, the reason for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51177/13]

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 81,000 persons in receipt of rent supplement for which the Government has provided over €403 million in 2013. Where a person commences full-time employment, they normally no longer qualify for a rent supplement. However, if a person is participating on the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme, they may continue to retain entitlement to rent supplement, subject to the means test, if they are deemed as eligible for the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS). The RAS gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the longer-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for 18 months or more. Details of these cases are notified regularly by my Department to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.