Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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167. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if it is no longer possible for persons to open new rent supplement claims in certain local authorities that are in the first wave of housing assistance payment implementation; if she will provide details of these local authorities; if persons on the housing list in one housing assistance payment wave-one local authority area may apply for rent supplement in another housing assistance payment wave-one local authority area, where they are unable to secure appropriate housing assistance payment accommodation in the local authority area, in which they are listed. [10108/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The rent supplement scheme provides 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 approximately 70,200 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €298 million for 2015. The financial provision for rent supplement reflects a transfer of funding of some €20 million to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to support the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

The Department’s strategic policy direction is to return rent supplement to its original purpose of being a short term income support by transferring responsibility for persons with long term housing needs to the local authorities under HAP. The rent supplement scheme will continue to be in existence for persons in private rented accommodation with short term housing needs, for example during periods of temporary unemployment.

HAP is currently being administered in selected local authority areas and will be expanded shortly to include additional local authorities. A breakdown of HAP designated areas by local authority and household type is provided in the attached tabular statement. New applicants with long term housing needs will be considered under HAP in these local authority areas rather than rent supplement. The applicant’s eligibility for social housing support, including HAP, will be assessed by the relevant local authority. HAP is being designed so as to bring all of the social housing services provided by the State together under the local authority system.

Policy in relation to applications for HAP across local authority areas and housing lists is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Tabular Statement: HAP Designated Local Authorities and Household Types.