Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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512. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if assistance is available to families who go above the income threshold for social housing supports due to the automatic payment of working family payment arising from a reduction in income that year, and therefore lose their cumulative waiting time on the housing list. [7451/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended, prescribe maximum net income limits for each local authority in different bands according to the area concerned, with income defined and assessed according to a standard Household Means Policy.

The policy provides for a range of income disregards and local authorities have discretion to disregard income that is temporary, short-term or once-off in nature. All income from social assistance payments, allowances and benefits, including working family payment, is assessable.

The payments included in the Policy were last reviewed in 2021. As it was found that the majority of working family payment recipients are in receipt of the payment for more than one year, it was recommended that the working family payment should not be considered short term in nature and, therefore, should remain as assessable income. However, my Department keeps the Household Means Policy under regular review in order to ensure that it continues to be appropriate.

In terms of affordable housing options, a number of affordable housing supports are in place under Housing for All. Information on these schemes is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/0d279-doors-open/ ,which also contains further links to each specific scheme. A number of these schemes can be combined, thereby providing additional affordability support.