I do not think Ministers are taking the Adjournment debates very seriously.
Adjournment Debate. - Rent Subsidies.
The Deputy should confine himself to the matter before us.
With due respect to the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, he cannot look after industry and commerce, agriculture and now health. However, I know he will handle it to the best of his ability.
A number of incidents have recently been brought to my attention about the anti-social behaviour of tenants who are in receipt of rent supplement. When I investigated the matter, I found out from the health board that those tenants could be in receipt of up to 90% of the rent of the house and yet the health board has no responsibility concerning the social behaviour of those tenants.
This is in contrast to local authority tenants who are subject to the controls of the local authority and if they engage in unsocial behaviour they can be punished with eviction. However, if tenants receiving rent subsidy are engaged in unsocial behaviour, the health board has no come back. The rent supplements cannot be withheld from those people. The only way to bring landlords and tenants to their senses would be to introduce a regulation – and the last regulations were in 1995-96. A regulation should be introduced giving health boards the same powers with regard to people receiving rent supplement as local authorities have over tenants in their houses.
I know that the vast majority of people receiving rent supplements behave in a correct social manner. However, there is a minority that is making life hell for their neighbours by keeping animals in their back gardens and playing loud music all night totally disregarding their neighbours, including children who are in the middle of their exams. I know of cases in Galway city where neighbours of people behaving like this had to move out of their houses and rent elsewhere. A regulation should be introduced so that there is some control over these people.
In the Western Health Board area in 2000 some £11.2 million was paid out in rent supplements. That would build a significant number of houses in that area. We are not getting good value for money in the manner in which that scheme is being administered.
There is another anomaly whereby there is an advantage to a person receiving rent supplement compared with a local authority tenant. For example, a widow with only a widow's pension living in a local authority one-bedroom house pays rent of more than £14 each week. A similar person renting a one-bedroom apartment and getting rent supplement only pays £6 on top of the rent supplement that they receive. The only way to correct this serious anomaly is to introduce a regulation.
I contacted the Western Health Board and was told that it had no jurisdiction and that unsocial behaviour is a matter for the Garda. I know that unsocial behaviour is a matter for the law, but there must be some regulation. If the landlord is in some other county or in some other country, he does not care about behaviour if he is getting his rent every week. However if he got the penalty of the rent supplement being cut for two, three or four weeks in the case of proven unsocial behaviour, then that landlord would not be long coming home and sorting out the problem.
Communities are suffering great disruption and tension. People are suffering great stress, upset and worry on account of this. On the first occasion they approach the offending neighbour and ask for music to be turned down or to have dogs put in the back yard, it will be done. However, on the second occasion, tension arises and it only leads to a worse problem. We have had a very serious problem in a housing estate in Galway last week where a young boy from a neighbouring house was hospitalised as a result of the unsocial behaviour of people in that type of scenario. The Minister should address this matter.
I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this issue on behalf of the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs who is unable to be with us this evening. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for a weekly or monthly supplement to be paid in respect of rent to any persons in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs. The scheme is administered on behalf of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs by the health boards and the Department has no function in deciding entitlement in individual cases. The purpose of rent supplements is to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible persons living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from another source.
The various conditions for receipt of rent supplement are set out in Part III of the Social Welfare (Consolidated Supplementary Welfare Allowance) Regulations, 1995, to which Deputy McCormack has referred. Rent supplements are normally calculated to ensure that the person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the supplementary welfare allowance basic weekly payment rate, less £6. This £6 represents the minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. In addition to the minimum contribution, all applicants are required to contribute any assessable means in excess of the appropriate basic SWA rate towards their rent. In practice, most recipients contribute more than £6 per week towards their rent because their weekly social welfare payment is above the standard SWA rate. For example, single persons on long-term unemployment assistance pay £7.50 per week towards their rent, a lone parent with two children on one parent family payment pays £11.50 per week towards rent and a single person on retirement pension pays £22 per week towards rent.
SWA is subject to a means test and is not ordinarily payable to people in full time employment. However, arrangements have been in place for some years now to enable rent or mortgage interest supplement recipients to retain their housing supplement as an in-work benefit on taking up employment, subject to certain conditions. For example, people on approved employment schemes, such as community employment, can retain part of their rent or mortgage interest supplement, subject to a gross household income limit of £250 per week and certain other conditions. The supplement is withdrawn on a tapered basis over a four year period, that is, 75% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 25% in year 3 and 25% in year 4.
In accordance with regulations, participants in community employment and back to work schemes are entitled to either the gradually reducing amount that can be retained under the transitional arrangements already described or the amount that is normally paid under the standard rules of SWA, whichever is the greater. The regulations to which I referred earlier also require each health board to set reasonable maximum rent levels in respect of various classes of persons, for example, single persons, couples, lone parents with one child, etc, as a basis for calculating the amount of rent supplement payable. The limits are set using local knowledge as to what constitutes a reasonable rent for private rented accommodation for various household types within and across the health board area and are reviewed regularly.
These SWA income maintenance payments deal with the symptoms of the problem but it is also necessary to deal with the underlying imbalances in the overall housing system. As the Deputy will be aware, this Government has decided in principle to introduce a new scheme of private sector rent assistance. The new scheme will be operated by the local authorities and will help to ensure that the best possible housing options are made available to people with long-term housing needs, many of whom currently rely on supplementary welfare allowance rent supplement. In that regard, I understand the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Dempsey, will bring detailed proposals to Government shortly. In addition, a review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is currently under way. All aspects of the scheme will be examined, including the arrangements governing payment of rent supplements.
I have listened with great interest to the serious problems narrated by Deputy McCormack pertaining to the situation in Galway city. I have no doubt those problems exist in many other towns and cities across the country. It is a matter we should address seriously to see what can be done to ensure there is equity in the regulations and that the rule of law prevails for everybody, including those who pay for their private accommodation through mortgages and hard work and those who benefit from the State as a result of the resources we make available. I will bring the sentiments expressed by the Deputy to the attention of both the Minister for the Environment and Local Government and the Minister for Health and Children.