Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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263. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government what grants or supports are available to a person with intellectual disabilities owing to an injury (details supplied), where the individual received a substantial compensation award on foot of this injury and whose assessed income therefore disqualifies them for social housing; whether this award can be excluded for the purposes of income assessment; what non-means tested housing supports are available to the person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23561/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Applications for social housing support are assessed by the relevant local authority, in accordance with the eligibility and need criteria set down in section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the associated Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended.

The regulations prescribe maximum net income limits for each local authority, in different bands according to the area concerned, with income being defined and assessed according to a standard Household Means Policy. The Policy is available at: www.gov.ie/en/publication/fb1f2-social-housing-support-household-means-policy/

Under the Policy, net income for social housing assessment is defined as gross household income less income tax, PRSI, Universal Social Charge and Additional Superannuation Contribution. The Policy provides for a range of income disregards, and local authorities also have discretion to decide to disregard income that is temporary, short-term or once-off in nature.

My Department issued a guidance note to assist local authorities when applying the Policy which stated that savings or lump sums are relevant to the income assessment only in so far as they generate an income for applicants, by way of dividend or interest. Should a lump sum generate an income by way of dividend or interest, then the generated income may be relevant to the income assessment.

Decisions on the qualification of specific persons for social housing support, the most appropriate form of any such support, and the allocation of that support are a matter solely for the local authority concerned.