Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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296. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide a full review of the HAP case of a person (details supplied). [2862/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Tenants in the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme are required to sign a rent contribution agreement to pay a weekly rental contribution to the relevant local authority, in line with the local authority’s differential rent scheme. As set out in the rent contribution agreement, this weekly rental contribution must be paid by them so that they remain eligible for the HAP scheme.

Limerick City and County Council provides a highly effective HAP transactional shared service on behalf of all local authorities. This HAP Shared Services Centre (SSC) manages all HAP-related rental transactions for the tenant, local authority and landlord.

The approach taken by the HAP SSC has been very effective with minimal levels of rent arrears arising for tenants. At Q3 2022, the scheme had a 99% differential rent collection rate. Therefore, only a very small number of tenants have fallen into difficulty with their differential rent.

During the Covid-19 emergency, the HAP Debt Management Process (DMP) was suspended from March 2020 and partially re-commenced in October 2020. This meant non-payment of differential rent by a tenant during that time did not affect payments to HAP landlords. Tenants were, however, expected to continue to pay their rent with supports available for those financially impacted by Covid.

Following on from the successful roll out of the Covid vaccine programme and the reopening of society, the normal DMP was reinstated from 6 September 2021.

Tenants that incurred arrears during the Covid-19 emergency were given additional time to engage with the HAP Debt Management Unit to clear their arrears, as well as access to payment plans as a specific Covid measure. Under the normal HAP DMP payment plans are not offered or available to tenants at this stage of the process. The HAP SSC has now resumed the standard debt management process.

HAP tenants in arrears should contact their local authority and the HAP SSC to discuss the options that are available to them to ensure the continuation of their HAP support.

The administration of the HAP scheme is a matter for the relevant local authority and it is the responsibility of the local authority to make a decision in each individual case. As Minister, I am precluded from involvement in individual cases.