Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2015
1435. Deputy Joanna Tuffy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide an update on the pilot schemes for the housing assistance payment (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31250/15]
View answerThe first phase of the statutory pilot for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme commenced in September 2014 and has been introduced incrementally to 13 local authority areas to date - Limerick City and County Council; Waterford City and County Council; Cork, Louth, Kilkenny, South Dublin, Monaghan, Donegal, Offaly, Carlow, Clare and Tipperary County Councils; and Cork City Council. Dublin City Council is also implementing the HAP pilot scheme for homeless households in the Dublin region on behalf of all four Dublin local authorities. To date, there are almost 4,000 households supported by HAP across these local authority areas. Consideration is currently being given to the sequencing of a further cohort of local authorities to commence HAP in the coming months. On 16 December, 2014, I issued a statutory direction to all authorities involved in the HAP statutory pilot, instructing them to take the necessary steps to ensure that households benefitting from HAP can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support, should they wish to do so, through the transfer option. I also directed that HAP recipients, who apply to go on the transfer list, should get full credit for the time they spent on the waiting list and be placed on the transfer list with no less favourable terms than if they had remained on the waiting list. In practice, housing authorities inform HAP recipients in writing of their entitlement to apply to go on the transfer list when they are approved for HAP. As of 31 August 2015, 17 households had transferred from HAP to other forms of social housing support.
