Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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520. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the legislation under which a local authority can disregard the Government's household means policy 2011 and include carer's allowance in its assessment of the rent that can be charged. [1565/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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To qualify for social housing support a household must meet all of the eligibility criteria, which primarily relate to income and alternative accommodation. The Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 prescribe maximum net income limits for each housing authority, in different bands according to the area, with income being defined and assessed according to a standard Household Means Policy. This policy does not cover any aspect of the way in which rents are charged for social housing by local authorities.

The making and amending of rent schemes is the responsibility of local authorities as an integral part of their housing management functions, subject to broad principles laid down by my Department in Circular letter HRT 3/2002 of 6 March 2002. It is a matter for local authorities, when assessing individual households, to consider whether rents payable are in accordance with the authority’s rent scheme. Therefore, decisions on whether or not to disregard either a proportion of income or particular sources of income for the purposes of calculating rents are matters for each individual local authority to consider in accordance with their own rent scheme.

Section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 allows the Minister to make regulations in respect of various matters to be included in a rent scheme. These can include the sources of household income that may be assessed for the purpose of determining rent levels.

Considerable work has been carried out by my Department in developing a draft framework for a harmonisation of the approach to be taken by local authorities in regard to various aspects of rent schemes. This includes providing for a common set of income disregards to be applied by all housing authorities in determining a household’s assessable income for rent calculation purposes.

These proposals are now being examined further in the light of the broader commitment given in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, to review the disparate systems of differential rents for social housing in place across local authorities. The overall aim is to ensure that housing supports are fair and sustainable, prioritise those on lowest incomes and avoid creating social welfare traps that may prevent people from either returning to work or to the private housing market. This review is scheduled to be completed before the end of Quarter 2 2017.