Written answers

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Social and Affordable Housing Eligibility

Photo of Derek NolanDerek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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532. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if a person in the process of getting a divorce who has no beneficial interest in the family home may be deemed in need of housing and placed on the housing waiting list if the husband and beneficial owner of said home remains in occupancy and the couple has been living separately for a period greater than one year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39209/15]

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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In order for a household to qualify for social housing support a housing authority must carry out an assessment to establish whether the household meets specified eligibility requirements and has a housing need.

Regulation 22 of the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 provides that a household is ineligible for social housing support where a household member owns accommodation other than the dwelling it currently occupies which would meet its housing need. This ineligibility does not apply in the case of separated persons where the alternative accommodation is occupied by a spouse, from whom the household member is separated or divorced. Under the regulations, a deed of separation is sufficient to set aside this ineligibility and it is not necessary for the couple to be judicially separated or divorced.

In order to provide more flexibility to housing authorities to deal with cases where the ownership of the family home had not yet been finalised the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 amended section 20 of the 2009 Act. Housing authorities may now provide such households with social housing support under the Rental Accommodation Scheme or the new Housing Assistance Payment scheme until ownership of the family home is resolved in a formal separation or divorce settlement.

The 2014 Act amendment provides that support in these circumstances will be reviewed by the housing authority at prescribed intervals and the household will not be able to transfer to other forms of social housing support while ownership of the family home remains to be determined. However, where the household ultimately qualifies for the full range of social housing supports, the length of time the household was supported under RAS or HAP will be reckonable for the purposes of determining the household’s relative priority for a transfer.

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