Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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160. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the status of a query by a person (details supplied) regarding how the misuse of rent allowance payments is prevented. [17834/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Rent supplement plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting approximately 55,000 people for which the Government has provided approximately €267 million for 2016.

Under the legislative provisions governing rent supplement, the Department’s relationship is with the tenant; the tenant makes the application for rent supplement and payment is made to the tenant to assist them with their accommodation needs. There is no direct contractual relationship between the landlord and the Department in the administration of the scheme.

Social welfare legislation provides for the payment of a rent supplement to a nominated payee such as a landlord on behalf of the tenant. This arrangement is entered at the tenant’s request and subject to the consent of the Department. Recent figures show that direct payments to nominated payees are made in approximately 12,300 cases (22% of cases). In these cases the rent supplement recipient must continue to make arrangements to pay their minimum contribution required under the scheme directly to their landlord.

The Department’s strategic policy direction is to return rent supplement to its original purpose of being a short term income support by transferring responsibility for persons with long term housing needs to the local authorities under the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme (HAP). The efficiency of the rent supplement scheme would be significantly affected if all payments were to be made directly to landlords, for the provision of a short term support. Under HAP the local authority pays the full rent directly to the landlord with the HAP recipient required to make a differential rent contribution to the local authority. HAP is currently operational in 19 local authority areas with payments being made in respect of over 10,370 tenancies.

It remains open to the landlord to bring to the attention of this Department any instance where they suspect that a tenant is receiving rent supplement and is not paying their rent. Where the Department becomes aware that a person is not using rent supplement to meet the accommodation costs, payment of the supplement is suspended and the matter investigated.

The Department’s policy is to ensure that overpayments are prevented, and if they occur, they are regarded as a debt to the Exchequer and every effort is made to recover the amount over paid. If the Deputy has details of a particular case where they suspect misuse of rent supplement, the details should be provided to my Department for review.