Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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123. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on the crisis in rent supplement, including an update on claim processing times; and the total number of rent supplement recipients that will be transferred to the new housing assistance programme by the end of 2014. [3523/14]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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134. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding reforms to rent supplement payments; and when the housing assistance payment system will be in place. [3519/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 123 and 134 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. There are currently approximately 80,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014.

The timescale for determining applications for rent supplement is dependent, among other things, on the availability of the required information, such as details of the applicant’s income and bank statements. 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. In cases where all the necessary information is provided at initial application stage, rent supplement claims are generally processed between two and five working days.

The provision of a prompt service is a major objective for the Department’s staff dealing with rent supplement applications. This is tempered by the necessity to ensure that every case is fully investigated and dealt with in a consistent and fair manner.

The Department’s strategic policy direction is to return rent supplement to its original purpose of a short-term income support. Approximately 50,000 of recipients are in receipt of the supplement for over 18 months. In July 2013 the Government approved the introduction of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). Under HAP, responsibility for recipients of rent supplement with a long-term housing need will transfer from the Department of Social Protection to local authorities using HAP.

Officials in the Department are working with those in the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government in developing proposals to give effect to this transfer. It is intended that the scheme will be piloted in Limerick local authority in early 2014 with further roll out to selected authorities during the year. The total number of rent supplement recipients that will be transferred to HAP by the end of 2014 is not known at this time.