Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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404. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he would consider discounting the working family payment when assessing income for inclusion on the social housing list or alternatively include income from the working family payment as part of the local authority loan assessment process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27700/25]

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.

For the Local Authority Home Loan (LAHL), all taxable income with the exception of three payments from the Department of Social Protection, namely Carers Benefit, Carers Allowance and Community Employment Schemes are included in the calculation for eligibility for the scheme. In assessing repayment capacity for a LAHL generally, social welfare payments would not be considered as part of repayment capacity. However, certain long-term State benefit payments may be considered as repayment income. The long-term State benefit payments considered include; State Pension (Contributory), State Pension (Non-Contributory), Widow’s/Widower’s Pension, Blind Pension and Invalidity Pension.

Working Family Payment is a non-taxable source of income, and it is not included in the calculation of eligibility or repayment capacity for LAHL applications. There are no plans at present to change the income eligibility or repayment capacity criteria for the LAHL.