Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 June 2004
379 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will review the payment of rent allowance, in particular at the poverty trap that makes it very difficult for rent allowance claimants to take up employment and stay in private rented accommodation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16183/04]
View answerUnder standard supplementary welfare allowance assessment rules, rent supplements are calculated to ensure that an eligible person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his or her family circumstances, less a minimum contribution of €13 which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Up to €50 in respect of additional income from part-time employment or approved training courses is disregarded in the means test thus ensuring that a person is better off as a result of taking up such an opportunity. The standard means test was further eased in January 2004 whereby any amount of family income supplement in payment is also disregarded.
Under the legislation, supplementary welfare allowance is not normally payable to people in full time employment. However, special arrangements are in place which allow people on approved employment schemes such as back to work allowance, or anyone who has been unemployed for 12 months or more and who moves from a welfare payment to a full-time job to retain part of their rent supplement for up to four years subject to a weekly household income limit of 75% in year 1, 50% in year 2 and 25% in years 3 and 4. Back to work allowance and family income supplement, in cases where one or both of these are in payment, are disregarded in the assessment of the €317.43 weekly income limit. PRSI contributions and reasonable travelling expenses are also disregarded in the means test.
The arrangements outlined above encourage and assist people in the transition from reliance on welfare payments to full-time employment. These arrangements will be reviewed in the course of the programme evaluation of the social welfare allowance scheme, which is under way.
380 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when rent supplement will be awarded to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare who has supplied all documentation as requested including bank details; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16207/04]
View answerThe South Western Area Health Board was contacted regarding this case and has again advised that the position remains as outlined in my reply to Question No. 419 which I answered for the Deputy on 11 May 2004. In particular, the board has advised that certain documentation, which the person concerned has already been requested to furnish, is still outstanding. The community welfare officer at her local health centre will again, if she contacts him, advise her as to the exact nature of the documentation required to allow a determination on her application for rent supplement to be made.
381 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the position regarding recipients of the free travel pass who reside in rural areas; the plans her Department has to permit the applicants to use the passes against the only means of transport available to them, the taxis of their area. [16221/04]
View answerThe scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as services provided by over 80 private transport operators. Most private contractors providing services under the scheme operate in rural areas. The underlying feature of the scheme is the use of spare capacity on these transport services. I am always willing to consider applications from licensed private transport operators who may wish to participate in the free travel scheme. However, while my Department pays transport providers to operate the free travel scheme, it is not in a position to provide transport services where none exist.
Access to public transport in rural areas is being addressed at present through the rural transport initiative, which is managed by Area Development Management on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Transport. My Department contributed €500,000 to the initiative in 2003 and in this year. Various alternatives to the existing system have been examined. A study published in 2000 under the Department's programme of expenditure reviews concluded that a voucher type system, which would be open to a wide range of transport providers including taxis and hackneys, would be extremely difficult to administer, open to abuse and unlikely to be sufficient to afford an acceptable amount of travel. Significant improvements have been made to the free schemes, including the free travel scheme, in recent budgets in terms of the qualifying conditions and the coverage of the schemes. I will continue to review the operation of these schemes with a view to identifying the scope for further improvements as resources permit.
