Under the terms of the supplemen tary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of my Department by the regional health boards, payment of a weekly or monthly supplement may be made in respect of rent to any eligible person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet his or her accommodation needs.
Under current legislation certain categories of people are specifically excluded from receiving assistance. These include people engaged in full-time employment, i.e. 30 hours or more per week, and people involved in full-time education.
The South-Western Area Health Board was contacted on behalf of the couple in question and has advised that one of the couple is in full-time employment and the other is a full-time student. Therefore, the position is that they would not normally be entitled to receive assistance under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.
The legislation governing supplementary welfare allowance allows a health board to make a payment to a person who would not normally qualify for assistance under the terms of the scheme. Payments of this nature are made only in very exceptional circumstances and are normally made for a limited period in order to allow a person to regularise his/her circumstances.
The board has further advised that a rent supplement had been paid to the couple in question as a very exceptional measure for a period of six months from February 2003. It was clearly explained to them that an exception was being made and that payment of the supplement would continue for a limited period, i.e. six months. Accordingly, payment of the supplement ceased with effect from the end of July 2003.
In the opinion of the board, continuation of the supplement is not warranted in this case.