Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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391. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the total amount of contributions made by rent supplement recipients in the years 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014. [9210/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The purpose of rent supplement 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 79,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Department has provided over €344 million for 2014.

Rent supplement is calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. The weekly minimum contribution is €30 for a single adult household and €40 for coupled households. The minimum contribution for coupled households was €35 per week during 2012 and 2013. Many recipients pay more than this amount because recipients are also required, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic SWA rate towards their accommodation costs.

Details of the total contributions made by rent supplement recipients towards their accommodation costs are not available.