Written answers

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Department of Social Protection

Rent Supplement Scheme Eligibility

Photo of Brendan  RyanBrendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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358. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if there is a policy within the community welfare section of her Department that applicants for rent allowance must have been assessed as eligible for social housing by the local authority for the area in which they are applying, as opposed to another local authority, if so, the reason this is the case and the reason an assessment from a local authority using the same maximum income threshold cannot be accepted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19195/14]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from another source. There are currently approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014.

To qualify for rent supplement a claimant must:

- have been residing in private rented accommodation (where at the commencement of the tenancy the person could have reasonably afforded the rent and has experienced a substantial change in his or her circumstances where they are now unable to pay the rent) or accommodation for homeless persons or in an institution (or any combination of these) for a period of 183 days within the preceding 12 months of the date of claim for rent supplement,

or

- assessed by a housing authority pursuant to section 9 of the Housing Act 1988 (as amended by section 75 of the Health Act 2004) as having a housing need,
It is the Department’s policy that an assessment of eligibility for social housing support should be carried out by the relevant local housing authority in the area where a claim to rent supplement is made and the person intends to reside. This ensures that the relevant local authorities are made aware of and can take responsibility for the long-term housing needs of rent supplement tenants living within their administrative area. This reflects both the responsibility of local authorities in providing long-term housing supports and the temporary income support nature of rent supplement. Without this measure rent supplement recipients would be unknown to their respective local authority, where they currently reside, with the potential that they may lose out on an offer for social housing.

The Department’s strategic policy direction is to transfer responsibility for recipients of rent supplement with a long-term housing need to local authorities under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). Officials are working closely with those in the lead Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, in piloting HAP in Limerick with further roll out to selected local authorities during the year.

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