The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to assist with accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation. The scheme plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, supporting approximately 25,700 recipients for which the Government has provided €180 million for in 2018. The strategic policy direction of my Department is to return rent supplement to its original purpose of being a short-term income support scheme.
Under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, responsibility for the provision of rental assistance to those with a long-term housing need is being transferring to local authorities. HAP has been rolled out on incremental basis since 2014 and is now available in all 31 local authorities. There are currently over 42,500 HAP tenancies in place of which almost 10,200 have transferred directly from rent supplement.
My Department works closely with local authorities to facilitate the transfer of long-term rent supplement recipients to HAP tenancies. Under these transfer arrangements, long-term rent supplement tenants are requested in writing to contact their local authority to have their housing needs assessed. It should be noted that this request is not an application for HAP. Where a customer fails to respond to this letter within 6 weeks, they are provided with a further 6 weeks to respond to this request. Where a customer has concerns in relation to complying with this request, they should make contact with the Intreo office administering their rent supplement claim.
