Vol. 492 No. 5
50 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will make a statement on his discussions with the Department of the Environment and Local Government regarding the practice by some local authorities of including family income supplement in assessing liability for differential rents. [14338/98]
The Deputy will recollect that I indicated, in the course of an earlier parliamentary question on this matter, that I had written to my colleague, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, setting out my views on the question of Family Income Supplement, FIS, payments being assessed as income for the purposes of determining entitlement to local authority rent payments. I also drew attention at that time to the views expressed on this matter in the course of the Committee Stage debate on the Social Welfare Act, 1998.
As the Deputy will be aware, each local authority is responsible for determining its own differential rent scheme within general guidelines. This issue is one of the issues being considered by my Department and the Department of Environment and Local Government in the context of work being undertaken by the interdepartmental steering group which is charged with overseeing a study of the disincentive effects of secondary benefits and other entitlements.
This group also includes representatives from other relevant Departments. The group commissioned independent consultants to examine the effects of secondary benefits on the incentive to take up employment and training opportunities. The draft report submitted by the consultants is currently being considered by the Departments concerned.
