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Social Welfare Benefits

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Questions (139)

Seán Sherlock

Question:

139. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications for rent supplement for 2020 and to date in 2021. [35358/21]

View answer

Written answers

Rent supplement continues to play a key role in supporting families and individuals in private rented accommodation, with the scheme supporting 18,851 active recipients at the end of May 2021.

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.

Since the introduction of HAP, rent supplement continues to revert to its original role of providing short-term support to those who have become temporarily unemployed and require income support to meet their tenancy cost whilst they seek alternative employment.

For eleven months ending to November 2020 the number of rent supplement applications awarded was 12,613; the number of applications disallowed was 1,598. The number of applications received in the period December 2020 to date are not currently available.

The following table gives details of the number of Rent Supplement recipients at the end of each month for the period January 2020 to May 2021.

Month Ending

Number of Rent Supplement Recipients

January 2020

16,391

February 2020

15,900

March 2020

15,716

April 2020

18,222

May 2020

21,123

June 2020

21,171

July 2020

20,404

August 2020

19,362

September 2020

19,113

October 2020

18,942

November 2020

19,642

December 2020

19,304

January 2021

19,657

February 2021

19,977

March 2021

19,976

April 2021

19,570

May 2021

18,851

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

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