Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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As the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is deemed to be a social housing support under section 19 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, as amended, households in receipt of HAP are not included on the local authority waiting list for social housing support. However, HAP recipients may access other forms of social housing supports by applying to go on the local authority transfer list. 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 benefitting 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 12 April 2016, 91 households have transferred from HAP to other forms of social housing support.

The Social Housing Strategy 2020 includes 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.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is being introduced incrementally on a pilot basis to local authority areas. Since HAP commenced in September 2014, some 8,2 00 households are currently being supported by the scheme and HAP is now available to all qualified households in 19 local authority areas. HAP provides for the transfer of responsibility for long-term recipients of rent supplement who have a recognised housing need from the Department of Social Protection to the local authority sector, thus bringing all long-term social housing supports provided by the State together under the local authority system. Upon its introduction in a local authority area, HAP will replace rent supplement for those with a long-term housing need and who qualify for social housing support; rent supplement will no longer be an option for applicants in such cases. Local authorities are taking an incremental approach to the transfer of recipients from rent supplement to HAP in their own areas. This involves close co-operation with local Department of Social Protection offices and individual tenants. An existing rent supplement recipient who has been determined as eligible for the HAP scheme may transfer to HAP and remain in their current accommodation where the landlord is in agreement, and subject to the terms and conditions of the scheme being met. Over 8,300 households are currently being supported by the HAP scheme; 36% of these households have transferred to HAP from the Rent Supplement scheme.

The transfer of long-term rent supplement recipients to the HAP scheme is a carefully managed process, involving close contact between the relevant local authority and the local office of the Department of Social Protection . My Department has had no contact with Intreo. In that context, any correspondence issued by Intreo to rent supplement recipients is a matter for the Department of Social Protection.