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Rent Supplement Scheme Payments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 November 2012

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Ceisteanna (106, 108, 125, 131, 141)

John Halligan

Ceist:

106. Deputy John Halligan asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will examine the cases of persons (details supplied) in relation to community welfare offices having flexibility in making payments. [49921/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Seán Fleming

Ceist:

108. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on whether reductions in rent supplement has led to an increase in homelessness; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49901/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Thomas Pringle

Ceist:

125. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will examine the cases of persons (details supplied) in relation to community welfare offices having flexibility in making payments. [49920/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceist:

131. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will respond to evidence that new rent allowance limits are resulting in tenants becoming homeless and or living in overcrowded situations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49916/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

John Halligan

Ceist:

141. Deputy John Halligan asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will respond to evidence that new rent allowance limits are resulting in tenants becoming homeless and or living in overcrowded situations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49917/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (25 píosaí cainte)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 106, 108, 125, 131 and 141 together.

There are currently approximately 89,000 persons in receipt of rent supplement, for which the Government has provided €436 million in 2012. Revised rent limits are applicable to new rent supplement tenancies from January 2012 and existing tenancies on review. These limits were set up after an analysis of the most up-to-date market data available. Special provisions can be made in exceptional circumstances, including, for example, people with disabilities in specially adapted accommodation or homeless persons.

With regard to the specific case referred to by Deputies Halligan and Pringle, I understand the person concerned contacted the Department regarding his entitlement to rent supplement on 7 November 2012. According to the information available to the Department, the person is not known to be homeless, nor is he known to be residing in a homeless unit in the Dún Laoghaire area. I presume the earlier reference to evidence refers to the recently published report by Focus Ireland, Out of Reach: The Impact of Changes in Rent Supplement. I remarked earlier that this was based on a small sample of ten cases out of approximately 89,000 who have been granted rent supplement. Approximately 42,000 of these cases were negotiated since the changes in rent supplement were implemented. Department officials continue to liaise with regard to the particular circumstances in the case of the individual referred to. I understand he is a separated person and that the family home will be sold in several years' time. He was on illness benefit but, as I understand it, the illness benefit ran out. The person has made other applications to the Department and is currently receiving payment from the Department in respect of a basic income supplement.

The evidence is piling up to the effect that the cutting of rent allowance caps by the Minister is leading directly to homelessness. On three occasions before the summer I was contacted by dozens of families who were threatened with homelessness or had been made homeless as a result of the rent allowance cuts. Since then Focus Ireland, Threshold and other Deputies have raised the issue, but the Minister has stated there has been no incidence of homelessness due to these changes. Again, today, I have presented the Minister with two concrete cases. One involves a former council worker who had worked for 40 years. He had a heart attack, followed by heart surgery during which stents were inserted. He had to leave his job as a result and is now being denied rent allowance. When he met the rent allowance officer and explained that the rent for the place in which he had been living for many years was €800, she laughed at him and suggested he need not bother applying. He is now threatened with homelessness. The other man was a barber who lived in the place where he worked. When he lost his job he was made homeless and is now living in a hostel in Bride Street, although he is from Dún Laoghaire, because he cannot get a place within the rent caps.

I went on the www.daft.ie website today to look for accommodation at or under the rent allowance cap in Dublin. Not one place of accommodation in south Dublin was available at or below €475 per month. These people are facing homelessness. One of them has been made homeless, along with dozens if not hundreds of others. What will the Minister do about it? Will she raise the rent caps back to sustainable levels or introduce rent controls if bringing down rents is the real agenda? At any rate, she should stop this policy, which is making people homeless.

Deputy O'Dea also has a question. I can only call the Deputies who have put questions.

I wish to follow up on the comments of Deputy Boyd Barrett. I am unsure from where the Minister is getting her information. I can submit several concrete examples from my city in which the rent allowance cap has led to homelessness. I can provide actual instances. Despite the information the Minister received from her Department to the effect that it is not causing homelessness, manifestly it is doing so.

Is the Minister aware of a widespread practice whereby the landlord and tenant collude to leave the rent at a certain level to qualify for rent allowance, while the tenant pays a top-up sum under the counter to the landlord? Strictly speaking it is illegal, but it is taking place and it is causing great hardship. It is the only way around the cap. Is the Minister aware of it?

I wish to inform the Deputy from Dún Laoghaire that the rent limit for a couple with three children in Dún Laoghaire for a three bedroom house is €950 per month.

I was referring to a single person. The figure is €475.

For people at work who are paying tax, it represents a lot of money to pay rents to landlords of €950 per month.

If that is the Minister's concern she should introduce rent controls rather than make people homeless.

These taxpayers are paying tax and PRSI. Deputy Boyd Barrett seems to be on a mission to raise rents for landlords, but I believe he is wrong to try to raise rents for private landlords.

I am saying the Minister should introduce rent controls.

It is great to hear that logic from the Labour Party.

The Minister should introduce rent controls. She should get out of the bubble.

We are paying for it.

Why does the Government not build social housing?

Taxpayers in this country will pay €435 million in rent supplements to private landlords.

The Minister to conclude.

Coming from Dún Laoghaire, Deputy Boyd Barrett may feel that €435 million is a small amount of money but it is not a small amount of money to me.

Here is a man with a heart condition who will be homeless as a result of the Minister's policies.

Dún Laoghaire and the south-side may well be different. The Government is currently supporting 89,000 persons in rented accommodation.

That is Chairman Mao stuff.

One can scoff at that, at a cost of €435 million.

That is the conscience of the Labour Party Chairman Mao.

Some 42,000 rents have been renegotiated so far this year using the limits.

The Minister should go on daft.ie and find somewhere for €425 in south Dublin.

The concerns of Limerick were not addressed at all.

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