Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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654. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when his Department will issue the housing assistance payment transfer list regulations to local authorities; and the reason for the delay. [36313/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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On 16 December, 2014, I issued a statutory direction to all authorities involved in the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) statutory pilot, instructing them to take the necessary steps to ensure that households benefiting from HAP can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support, should they wish to do so, through the transfer option. I also directed that HAP recipients, who apply to go on the transfer list, should get full credit for the time they spent on the waiting list and be placed on the transfer list with no less favourable terms than if they had remained on the waiting list. In practice, housing authorities inform HAP recipients in writing of their entitlement to apply to go on the transfer list when they are approved for HAP. As of 19 October 2015, 23 households have transferred from HAP to other forms of social housing support.

The Government’s Social Housing Strategy 2020includes a commitment to examine the system of assessment and allocation of social housing support and make recommendations in this regard. The examination is underway and recommendations for changes to the system of assessment and allocation will be brought forward, in due course, including recommendations that may require changes to Regulations.