I propose to take Questions Nos. 427 and 436 together.
My Department understands that ‘top up’ payments under the rent supplement scheme fall into two specific categories – those that are specifically approved by the Department of Social Protection, where a person has additional income above the rate of supplementary welfare allowance which would allow additional rent payments to be made and still have sufficient income to meet their basic needs, and those that occur when ‘false declarations’ of rent supplement are made through the use of illegal top-ups. While the matter of both authorised and illegal top-ups in rent supplement have been discussed in the context of developing the business processes for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) my Department has not included an estimate of rental top-ups for the purposes of HAP in terms of what currently might be paid by tenants under the rent supplement scheme.
Rent limits will also be applied in respect of the HAP scheme and in order to facilitate a smooth implementation for the scheme the current rent limits under the rent supplement scheme will be applied through the transitional implementation phase. It is intended, on completion of this transitional phase, that I as Minister for Housing, would set the maximum rent limits in relation to HAP for local authority functional areas. The process of how such limits will be set including any element of discretion will be examined in due course. Until such time as this function in relation to HAP becomes operational, the setting of rent limits for the rent supplement scheme remains the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for Social Protection.
