The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources. 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 76,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014.
Statistics are not maintained regarding the number of rent supplement reviews undertaken or their outcome.