Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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36. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on the delays in processing applications for rent allowance, in particular for residents of Dublin South Central; and the reason that requests for additional information from her Department automatically result in an application being put to the bottom of the processing pile. [17344/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, 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 timescale for determining applications for rent supplement can vary and is dependent amongst other things, on the completeness of the application at time of receipt and the availability of required information such as details of the applicant's income, bank statements, information in respect of landlords, etc. The Rents Unit which is responsible for South Dublin City deals with high volumes of work, and some aspects of processing rent supplement applications can be complex and time consuming and delays can unfortunately occur where additional information is required.

Where all the necessary information is available claims are processed in a timely manner in order to award payment of rent supplement. Such cases are not delayed for processing and every effort is made to ensure that all applications for rent supplement are processed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

If the Deputy has received information to the contrary in relation to a particular case officials can investigate further if details are provided.