Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

159. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will instruct local authorities and his Department's rent offices to remove the threat of withdrawing rent supplement from tenants who have engaged meaningfully with the council in the transfer to the HAP scheme but whose private landlord is refusing to engage with the new scheme and-or cannot access new private rented accommodation due to the well documented shortage of availability in the market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7889/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The rent supplement scheme plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme currently supporting approximately 47,100 tenants for which the Government has provided €253 million for in 2017.

The implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a key Government priority and a major pillar of the Social Housing Strategy 2020 and the Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness – Rebuilding Ireland has committed to an accelerated target of 15,000 HAP tenancies during 2017. Under HAP, responsibility for the provision of rental assistance to those with a long-term housing need transfers from my Department to local authorities, under the auspices of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

In areas where HAP is in operation, persons who are in receipt of Rent Supplement for over 18 months are being requested to contact their LA to have their housing needs assessed, thus beginning the transfer process from rent supplement to HAP.

From 1st December 2016, the HAP scheme is now operational in 28 of the 31 local authority areas. The Housing Assistance payment went live in County Tipperary on the 1st July 2015 and there are currently 1,115 clients receiving the HAP payment in Tipperary with 429 or 38% coming from Rent Supplement.

Rent supplement will continue to be paid to households who are already in the private rented sector but who, generally because of a loss of income through unemployment, require a short term income support to pay their rent.

Failure of a landlord to participate in HAP does not affect a recipient’s continued entitlement to rent supplement, with every effort made to ensure that persons in receipt of rent supplement are supported in the transfer to HAP.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.