Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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48. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will consider extending rent allowance support to those persons who are working full-time and who are on very low incomes, in view of rapidly rising rents and the growing phenomena of the working homeless and bearing in mind that the Government's policy is to move to the housing assistance payment scheme, which allows for recipients to work full-time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33042/15]

Joan 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 accommodation costs and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer.

There are currently approximately 65,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €298 million for 2015, which represents a transfer of funding of over €20 million to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to support the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

As outlined by the Deputy, the Department’s overall strategic policy direction is to return rent supplement to its original purpose, short-term income support, by transferring responsibility for persons with long-term housing needs to the local authorities under HAP.

Officials in the Department continue to work closely with those in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the local authorities to further roll out HAP which is being administered in 13 local authority areas with additional authorities coming on stream before year end.

Rent supplement is not payable where a person or spouse/partner is in full time employment of 30 hours or more per week. However, a person on rent supplement who is deemed by a local authority to be eligible to participate in the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) may engage in full-time employment, subject to satisfying the standard means test, and may still be paid rent supplement. Any changes to social welfare schemes can only be considered in a budgetary context.