Subject to certain conditions, the supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of rent to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation needs and who do not have accommodation available from any other source.
A person does not have to spend a specified period of time on a housing list in order to qualify for a rent supplement. Anybody who is assessed by a housing authority as having a housing need which cannot immediately be met by the housing authority, a voluntary housing organisation or by the individual concerned will be entitled to rent supplement subject to the usual qualifying criteria.
An assessment of housing need may be carried out either by a local authority's housing officer or by a health board's environmental health officer acting on behalf of a local authority. The arrangements made in this regard are a matter for each local authority.