asked the Minister for the Environment the criteria for assessing differential rent by local authorities; the discretion, if any, a local authority has to impose a higher rent than that allowed by the differential rent scheme; and if a local authority is permitted under the scheme to impose a rent based on a notional income on tenants who have submitted evidence of their actual income.
Written Answers. - Differential Rent Scheme.
449.
Rents of local authority dwellings let on differential rent are assessed as a proportion of the assessable income of the principal earner ranging from one twentieth to one sixth of such income in accordance with a graded scale which includes allowances for the principal earner and dependent children, together with contributions from any subsidiary earners in the household. The maximum rent payable in respect of any dwelling is related to the updated original all-in cost of providing the dwelling.
The assessable income for differential rent purposes is determined by the housing authority on the basis of the information submitted by the tenant. Where a tenant fails to provide such information or fails to support it by adequate supporting documentation or other necessary evidence, an authority may, pending the receipt of that information, have no option but to charge the maximum rent applicable to the dwelling or rent at some lower rate corresponding to their estimation of the true income of the household.