The purpose of Rent Supplement is to provide short term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from another source. There are currently approximately 95,000 persons in receipt of rent supplement, with €436m provided for in 2012. Rent Supplement is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. The weekly minimum contribution is €30 for a single adult household and €35 for coupled households. Many recipients pay more than this amount because recipients are also required, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic SWA rate towards their accommodation costs.
Legislation provides that where a person, other than a qualified adult or a qualified child of the claimant, resides with the claimant, the designated officer deciding the claim shall reduce the amount of the supplement payable, by such amount, which in the opinion of that officer, is reasonably attributable to that other person.
The Department has previously advised staff administering the scheme that where a household consists of a non-dependent household member who is only in receipt of a Social Welfare payment, then the contribution payable toward the rent by that person should be €30 per week.