Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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42. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will take steps to ensure that persons applying for means-tested social protection payments following family law settlement in respect of the family home are not forced to spend the entire proceeds of their settlement before being awarded rent support; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8408/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The rent supplement scheme is supporting 47,000 tenants for which the Government has provided €253 million in 2017. The scheme is generally available to people whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and do not have alternative accommodation available. Rent supplement is subject to a means test which is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay. The standard weekly minimum contribution is €30 for a single adult household and €40 for coupled households. Many recipients pay more than this amount because recipients are required, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate SWA rate towards their accommodation costs. As part of the means test, a capital assessment is completed which includes savings, investments, property and any monies realised following a settlement as outlined by the Deputy. The combination of the means test and awarding differentiated rates of payment is premised on ensuring that social welfare payments are paid to those most in need and reflects the position that persons with reasonable amounts of capital and property are in a position to use that resource to support themselves. I have no plans to amend these conditions at this time.

The Deputy will be aware that the strategic policy direction of the Department is to return rent supplement to its original purpose of being a short-term income support with the introduction of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, which will be available nationally from 1st March 2017.

I trust this clarifies the matter.