Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 November 2013
301. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection if social welfare recipients who have savings of €10,000 to €13,500 may receive a rent supplement allowance; or if such persons receive a reduced rent supplement allowance. [48874/13]
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. There are approximately 81,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €403 million for 2013. Rent supplement is subject to a means test which is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. The weekly minimum contribution is €30 for a single adult household and €35 for coupled households. Many recipients pay more than this amount because recipients are also required, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic SWA rate towards their accommodation costs. As part of the means test, there is a capital assessment completed (including savings, investments, property etc.). Before the assessment is carried out, the capital is rounded down to the nearest €1,000. The first €5,000 of capital is disregarded and the next €10,000 assessed at €1 per €1,000 per week. Therefore an applicant with savings of €10,000 would have means of €5 per week assessed and an applicant with savings of €13,500 would have means of €8 per week assessed.
There are many factors which determine rent supplement entitlement, including the number of hours worked, the level of earned income and any social welfare payments or whether the rent payable is within prescribed limits. Based on the details provided by the Deputy, it is not possible to say for certain if the household would qualify for a rent supplement payment. However, if the person is eligible for rent supplement and the savings are the only additional income, then the person’s weekly rent supplement entitlement would be reduced by €5 or €8 as described.
