Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2020
30. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Social Protection the amount paid out by her Department in rent supplement each month from January 2020 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25104/20]
View answerIs ceist shimplí dhíreach í, a Aire. It is a very simple, direct question. How much money has been paid out by month in rent supplement from the Minister's Department?
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Rent supplement continues to play a key role in supporting families and individuals in private rented accommodation, with the scheme currently supporting 19,600 recipients.
The scheme provides short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The scheme ensures that those who were renting but whose circumstances have changed due to temporary loss of employment or income can continue to meet their rental commitments. In order to assist those whose income and employment has been affected by Covid-19, my Department introduced increased flexibility to facilitate easier access to rent supplement.
This has ensured that rent supplement could be provided in a timely manner for those households struggling to meet rent commitments during the pandemic. Since March 2020, rent supplement has been awarded to over 8,000 households. Of this number, over 1,700 have since closed their claim as they have returned to full-time employment. This flexibility is being extended until the end of March 2021.
Since the beginning of August, rent supplement is more easily accessible to victims of domestic violence. Arrangements are now in place to enable victims of domestic violence to get immediate access to rent supplement for a three-month period to ensure that they are not prevented from leaving their home because of financial or accommodation difficulties.
The revised forecast cost for supporting the rent supplement scheme to the end of the year is €133 million, an increase of €36.6 million, or 38%, on the original provision of €96.4 million for 2020. The €36.6 million forecast increase is due to an increase in those availing of the support during the Covid-19 pandemic. The monthly outturn for 2020 for the scheme is provided in a tabular statement that follows this reply and that I will forward to the Deputy.
Tabular Statement: Amount Paid by Month for Rent Supplement: Jan 2020 to Aug 2020
|
Month |
Euro |
|
January |
€8,891,071 |
|
February |
€8,209,296 |
|
March |
€8,654,764 |
|
April |
€11,476,784 |
|
May |
€13,487,642 |
|
June |
€12,794,964 |
|
July |
€12,305,023 |
|
August |
€10,534,638 |
|
Total |
€86,354,182 |
I welcome the flexibility from the Department regarding this matter. I also welcome the flexibility regarding victims of domestic violence. I have no difficulty with any of that.
I look forward to looking at the detail of the Minister's answer but rent supplement was to be abolished, is that not right? It was to be phased out and was only supposed to be there in temporary emergency situations. Applicants were to move on to the housing assistance payment, HAP. I have added up a rough estimate of the HAP, the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, payments and the rent supplement payments and we are at €600 million.
We are at more than €600 million and rising in relation to direct benefit to the private market while the housing crisis intensifies. I realise that is not the Minister's direct responsibility, but she is part of a Government that is actively promoting higher rents in the private market while we fail to provide public housing. What assessment has the Department done on this matter?
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 HAP scheme, responsibility for the provision of rental assistance to those with a long-term housing need is transferring to local authorities. HAP has been designed to simplify the current system of housing supports. It allows people to engage in full-time employment and remain in the scheme, whereas rent supplement is not generally payable where the person or his or her spouse or partner is in full-time employment, that is for 30 hours or more a week.
The tenant's rent contribution to the local authority under HAP is calculated using the local authority differential rent system. HAP has been rolled out on an incremental basis since 2014. As of 1 March 2017 it has been available in all 31 local authorities. Some 57,890 HAP tenancies are in place of which about 10,540 have been recorded as transferred directly from long-term rent supplement, representing 18.2% of HAP tenancies. As part of the rent supplement HAP transfer process, people in receipt of rent supplement for more than 18 months are being requested to contact their local authority to have their housing needs assessed.
I fully agree with the Minister that rent supplement should be a temporary emergency measure. I fundamentally disagree with the Government's policy since 2014 of moving people into HAP, which is blatantly unjust and is bolstering the private market. Some €600 million and rising is going straight into the private market. The Minister talked about the HAP scheme being designed simply. It is unacceptable to put it like that. Somebody who qualifies for HAP gets differential rent which is capped at a certain level. They must then come up with the money to pay the landlord, while the State funds go straight into his bank account. It is not sustainable. It is utter madness to go down this road of continually bolstering the private market.
Galway has an emergency task force on housing, which I welcome. The minutes are not even available from the June meeting. There is no recognition that there is a problem here.
In reacting to Covid, the important thing is for people to be able to remain in their houses. As the Deputy knows, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government introduced protections through the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020 which became law on 1 August. That includes protections for tenants facing rent arrears and as a result are at risk of losing their tenancy. My Department's focus has been to support people to ensure that during these difficult times they receive sufficient income to allow them to pay their rent and remain in their premises. That was rightly the overriding concern. Naturally people who lost their jobs were very concerned about how they might pay their rent. We were able to give them the flexibility they needed by providing them with the income support to ensure they could pay their rent and not have a big legacy bill which nobody wants them to have.
