Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 July 2013
61. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Social Protection the actions her Department has planned to ensure that rent supplement is only used as a short-term solution to the current backlog in social housing; the plans she has to ensure that the 43,891 persons who have claimed rent supplement support for more than 18 months are provided with a more long-term solution; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33238/13]
Amharc ar fhreagra115. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the discussions between her Department officials and officials of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government regarding the announcement with much fanfare of the housing assistance payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33260/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 61 and 115 together.
The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support for eligible persons living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are approximately 84,000 rent supplement recipients, of whom more than 53,000 have been in receipt of the supplement for more than 18 months. The Government has provided more than €403 million for the scheme in 2013.
In 2012 the Government approved in principle to transfer responsibility for the provision of rent assistance for persons with a long-term housing need, namely, for more than 18 months, from the Department to housing and local authorities under a new scheme, the housing assistance payment, HAP. Officials in the Department are working closely with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to assist with the necessary work required to introduce the new scheme in terms of enabling the priority drafting of the required legislation, initiating the business planning process, including dealing with all of the IT changes required, examining the possibilities for providing for direct deduction from social welfare payments, including an amendement to the household budgeting facility, completing the economic assessment and initiating the piloting of the HAP scheme.
The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has recently commenced a business processing development exercise to determine the business processes and officials from the Department of Social Protection are fully engaged in this process. The outcome of the initial exercise will provide an indication of the requirements and resources required for the implementation of the HAP scheme for both the Department and the housing authorities.
I apologise for getting the number wrong in my question, but the Minister has updated me in that regard. As was stated, this was supposed to be a short-term solution. A person who is homeless and cannot afford to rent privately is entitled to support from the Government to rent appropriate accommodation. However, even though this is supposed to be a short-term solution, currently there are 53,000 people who have been in receipt of rent supplement for more than 18 months. Last year, as the Minister noted, there were 85,000 in receipt of rent supplement, at a cost to the Exchequer of more than €400 million. Regardless of whether we mean the old rent supplement scheme or the new, preferable, HAP scheme, what will happen to this large cohort? Are we going to continue indefinitely in a situation where we depend on private landlords to provide the necessary accommodation, paying a king's ransom into their pockets each year? Does the Government have a social housing policy to provide sufficient social housing for the people concerned to enable them to come off these schemes within a shorter timeframe than 18 months?
In the way it grew the rent supplement scheme was meant for people in employment who lost their jobs suddenly and could no longer afford to pay their rent because they had no wages. The scheme then migrated, particularly during the period of office of the Deputy's Government, to provide a general catch-all housing supplement which, as the Deputy noted, was far removed from what had been intended originally. The Government is now returning it to what it was meant to be originally, namely, a short-term temporary payment. On the other hand, that requires local authorities throughout the country to update and revise their differential rent schemes.
There are at least 66 separate computer systems in different local authorities dealing with housing. If the Deputy thinks about the amount and variety of local authority accommodation available, the age of the people involved, the size and composition of the families, there are many variables and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government would like the Department of Social Protection to deduct that rent at source. We can only do that if the different local authorities can nominate to us the correct amount of the rent to be deducted. As the Deputy knows, local authorities have built up significant arrears difficulties, many of which have nothing to do with people on rent supplement but they have been anxious to see the Department of Social Protection help people to pay their rent by direct deduction at source through the Department. That, however, is a very onerous requirement whereby we will have to work out the IT involved. There is huge work going on in that respect.
The HAP payment was announced in the budget last year. Will progress be made before the budget this year or when is it expected that the new system will be in place because it is a transfer of payment? Will this payment also allow for those people who do not currently qualify for rent allowance? Many people on low rent are now living at home, often in cramped conditions, with family, and have no option because there is a shortfall in social housing and a long waiting list, and because they cannot qualify for that allowance and rents in some areas of the city continue to increase. Will it capture that cohort of people who do not qualify for rent allowance and who qualify to be on the housing list? There is a difference between them.
The complexity of that question is probably better addressed to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. What is important from the point of view of the Department of Social Protection is that one of the biggest poverty unemployment traps arises when somebody on rent supplement is offered employment and loses the whole of the rent supplement whereas if they are on the RAS or move to the HAP they will be provided with accommodation via the local authority and will be on a differential rent scheme. If they are offered a job they will be able to calculate according to their family circumstance what the likely increase in the rent will be, just as if they were in a traditional local authority programme. That is the enormous advantage of this kind of scheme to Irish society and to me as Minister for Social Protection because it removes one of the unemployment traps.
The local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government have committed us to beginning several pilots. I hope to see that as soon as possible but certainly no later than the start of the new year. I do not want to underestimate how challenging it is to bring in this new system. People who have served on local authorities and been involved in the complexity of housing cases will understand that it involves a large IT commitment for the local authorities. Returning to Deputy O'Dea's point, the provision of additional social housing is critically important to deal with the difficulties of the people he has instanced looking for housing.
The Minister anticipated some of what I was going to say. I do understand the complexities of transferring from the rent supplement scheme to the HAP scheme but the elephant in the room is the lack of social housing. Under whatever scheme the Minister assists people the lack of social housing is a constant. There is a gross lack of social housing at the moment.
Does the Minister agree with Social Justice Ireland and others that the Government’s provision for 5,000 extra social houses in last year’s budget only scratched the surface? In her previous incarnation as a spokesperson, I recall the Minister expressing the hope and aspiration that there would be a social dividend from the National Asset Management Agency. Has anything by way of social housing come from it?
Is there any indication as to the size of the pilot projects and their locations? I presume it will be a portion of a local authority rather than the whole which will transfer. Will the pilot project be for one year or two years? While the pilot project will not start before January next year, will the Minister indicate when it will be rolled out nationally?
I will have to come back to Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh on the details of the project. Yes, there is a role for enhanced investment in social housing, particularly at a time when we need stimulus programmes. We need to see some of those in the construction industry who have been long-term unemployed get back into employment. Under the recent stimulus programme my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, provided €50 million for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government for insulation retrofitting of local authority houses.
When I was on the other side of the House, Deputy Willie O’Dea’s late predecessor and my constituency colleague, Brian Lenihan, accepted my social dividend amendment to the NAMA legislation. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning are actively pursuing this matter with NAMA. One of the problems for NAMA is that many of the properties it has available are not necessarily in areas where people wish to live and some are in unfinished estates. There are ongoing active discussions on some properties which would provide good accommodation, particularly in major urban centres.
