Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2014
542. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 156 of 25 November 2014 his plans to address the gaps in the new housing assistance payment scheme whereby a person is not entitled to receive a payment until a housing need assessment has been completed (details supplied); the options available to such persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46172/14]
View answerThe implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a key Government priority and a major pillar of the Social Housing Strategy 2020, which I launched last week. HAP is designed to bring together all the social housing supports provided by the State, with local authorities being responsible for all households with an established housing need, including households in receipt of rent supplement for a lengthy period. Cork County Council is one of 7 housing authorities currently operating HAP on a pilot basis. A household presenting as homeless to a housing authority is not required to undergo a social housing assessment in order to be placed in temporary accommodation which the Council itself arranges or which is operated by a voluntary service provider. However, in order to qualify for HAP, households must be determined by a housing authority to be qualified for social housing support following a social housing assessment. The Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 84 of 2011) provide that applicants for social housing support must complete the prescribed application form and provide to the housing authority any additional information sought by the authority for the purpose of verifying information relating to the application. Under the Regulations, housing authorities are expected to deal with applications within 12 weeks of receiving a completed application form or additional information but, in exceptional circumstances, may take up 14 weeks more to process an application. These periods will be reviewed in the light of experience as part of the overall review of social housing assessment and allocation policies announced in the Social Housing Strategy.
Under the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, a household may qualify for social housing support if it has a mortgage that is deemed to be unsustainable under the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process and meets the other conditions for support. Qualification under this criterion is not dependent on the making of a possession order and my Department has advised housing authorities that, upon receipt of written confirmation from the lender that a household’s mortgage has been deemed unsustainable, an authority may determine that the household has a housing need, even though a household member may, at that time, continue to be the legal owner of the accommodation concerned.
The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 includes an important transitional provision relating to the general principle that housing authorities are not required to provide social housing support for households that own alternative accommodation that could meet their housing need. The new provision relates to households that are qualified for social housing support other than in relation to the issue of whether a household member owns suitable alternative accommodation. An example of this is where a household has left the family home and ownership of that accommodation has not been resolved in a formal separation or divorce settlement. Housing authorities may now support such households under HAP or the Rental Accommodation Scheme until the issue of whether the household owns suitable alternative accommodation is clarified.
