The Household Means Policy was issued in March 2011 under Regulation 17 of the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 and defines income for the purposes of determining an applicant’s compliance with the income eligibility criterion for social housing support and applies in all housing authorities. It is a matter for individual authorities to assess a household’s income for social housing support eligibility in accordance with the Policy, and in assessing a household’s income, authorities have discretion to decide to disregard income that is once-off, temporary or short-term in nature and which is outside the regular pattern of a person’s annual income.
The Policy lists the sources of income that are assessable and non-assessable for determining a household’s compliance with the income eligibility criterion. There is no provision to take account of any payments that a household may be obliged to make out of its net income and I have no plans to amend the Policy in this regard.
My Department is issuing a response to the person concerned setting out the position in this case as outlined above.