Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 November 2012
374. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to incidents of landlords seeking payments from tenants in excess of the rent supplement thresholds, if she believes such practices are wide-spread, the action she is taking; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49770/12]
View answerThe purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The overall aim is to provide short term assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer. There are currently approximately 89,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €436 million for 2012.
Rent supplement is calculated to ensure that the person, after payment of rent, has an income equal to the basic supplementary welfare allowance rate, less a specified weekly minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own resources.
The “top up” payments referred to fall into two specific categories. Where a person has an additional income above the rate of supplementary welfare allowance they are, in certain circumstances, allowed to top up their rent as they will still have sufficient income to meet their basic needs after paying their rent.
The second type of top up payment can occur where the application to the Department declares a rent lower than that actually being charged by the landlord. There has been no evidence presented to the Department showing widespread or systemic ‘false declarations’ of rent supplement through the use of illegal top-ups.
Any instance of false declarations should be reported to the relevant Department representatives who have specific legislative powers to deal with such offences.
