45. To ask the Minister for Social Protection why a person (details supplied) in Dublin 8 has lost an entitlement to a rent allowance; why this person cannot receive support from a community welfare officer; and why, if this person and a partner were aged 26 years plus and in receipt of social protection payments and rent allowance, they would have a greater income than they have at present. [6887/16]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The person concerned is currently participating in the part-time job initiative (PTJI) scheme. The PTJI scheme is intended as a stepping stone to full-time work. It allows certain long-term unemployed people to take up part-time work and get a special weekly allowance instead of their jobseeker’s payment. A person is not placed on PTJI by the Department. They secure the part-time work themselves and then contact their local Intreo Centre in order to apply to participate in the PTJI scheme.

On 6 January 2016, a rent supplement review was carried out which showed the combined weekly income of the person, less income disregards, less supplementary welfare rate for a couple and with the addition of the minimum contribution yielded a weekly contribution of €197.25 per week towards the rent. The rent charged equated to €115.30 per week and therefore their weekly contribution exceeded that of the rent thus giving a nil entitlement to rent supplement.

A further review carried out on 26 February 2016 confirmed that the person’s contribution still exceeded the weekly rent and that there was no entitlement to rent supplement. It remains open for the person concerned to submit an appeal against this decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

A Designated Person administerssupplementary welfare allowance including exceptional needs payments (ENP's). An ENP covers essential, once-off exceptional spending that one could not reasonably be expected to meet out of weekly income.

ENP's cannot be used to replace another social welfare payment in this case rent supplement. Rent supplement is administered by centralised unit in the Department and not through Intreo Centres.

The reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009, and extended in subsequent Budgets. A weekly jobseeker’s allowance rate of €100 applies to jobseekers aged 18-24 and a weekly rate of €144 applies to jobseekers who are 25 years of age.

These measures are targeted activation measures, aimed at protecting young people from welfare dependency by incentivising them to avail of education and training opportunities. If a jobseeker in receipt of the reduced jobseeker’s allowance rate participates on an education or training programme they will receive a higher weekly payment of €160.