Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 February 2005
260 Mr. Cregan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the situation regarding the scale of reduction for rent allowance for persons who take up employment or community employment schemes; if the sliding scale is absolute or dependent on clients’ ability to pay; and the details of the process or calculation for continuing past rent allowance indefinitely if circumstances so require. [3153/05]
View answerRent supplements are provided for under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Supplementary welfare allowance is payable to people in part-time employment but is not normally payable to people who are engaged in full-time employment. However, arrangements have been in place for a number of years which allow people to retain a portion of their rent supplement where they take up employment through approved schemes, such as community employment, or where, following 12 months unemployment, they move from a social welfare payment to open market employment, subject to a weekly household income limit of €317.43. Back to work allowance and family income supplement, in cases where one or both of these are in payment to an applicant for rent supplement, are disregarded in the assessment of the €317.43 weekly income limit. PRSI and reasonable travelling expenses are also disregarded in the means test.
Under these arrangements, rent supplement may be retained after commencement of employment for up to four years on a tapered basis, that is, 75% in year one, 50% in year two and 25% in years three and four. There are no arrangements in place to extend entitlement beyond this period. People participating in back to work and community employment schemes, or those on other approved employment schemes who work fewer than 30 hours per week, have the option of being assessed under either standard rules or under the retention rules outlined above and will be entitled to receive payment under the more favourable option in their situation.
Under standard 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 each recipient is required to pay from his or her own resources. Up to €60 in respect of additional income from part-time employment is disregarded in the means test, ensuring that a person is better off as a result of taking up such an opportunity. Community employment is regarded as part-time employment for these purposes.
Eligibility thresholds and disregards, together with improvements in the standard rules of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, ensure that people have a financial incentive to take up employment opportunities. It also ensures there is a safeguard in place to provide rent supplement in any exceptional hardship situation that might arise. The effectiveness of these arrangements will be considered further in the context of a review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which my Department is undertaking during 2005.
