Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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391. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government whether the policy whereby someone cannot have their homeless HAP increased to the new increased level while they stay in existing accommodation (details supplied) will be reviewed. [28546/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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A key principle of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is that eligible households source their own accommodation in the private rental market. The accommodation sourced by tenants should be within the prescribed maximum HAP rent limits, which are based on household size and the rental market within the area concerned.

Since 11 July 2022, each local authority has statutory discretion to agree to a HAP payment up to 35% above the prescribed maximum rent limit, and up to 50% discretion can be provided in the case of homeless households in the Dublin region. Additional flexibility was also given, from this date, for local authorities to apply a couple HAP rate to single person households for new tenancies. Recognising that newer tenancies are at a higher cost than those tenancies already in place, the measure only applied to new tenancies.

It should be noted that it is a matter for the local authority to determine whether the application of the flexibility is warranted on a case by case basis and also the level of discretion applied in each case.

There is no legislative provision precluding HAP-supported households contributing towards the monthly rent to their landlord beyond that of their HAP payment. However, local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that tenancies are sustainable and are advised not to provide HAP support to tenancies where the household would not be in a position to meet the rental costs being sought.

My Department continues to keep the operation of the HAP scheme under review and closely monitors the level of discretion being used by local authorities, taking into account other sources of data, including Residential Tenancies Board rent data published on a quarterly basis.