The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for a weekly or monthly supplement to be paid in respect of rent or mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet his or her needs. The scheme is administered by the health boards and neither I nor my Department have any function in deciding entitlement in individual cases. The allowance is subject to a means test; rent supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a household, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to family circumstances, less €7.62, which represents the minimum contribution recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €7.62 towards their rent because they are required to contribute additional assessable means in excess of the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate towards their rent. The value of maintenance payments must be considered in the means test for one-parent family payment and rent supplement in the case of a single mother who receives maintenance payments as well as the other two payments.