The purpose of the rent supplement scheme 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 80,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014.
In the case of private rented accommodation, tenancy arrangements involve a contract between the landlord and the tenant. The Department has no relationship with the landlord and tenant behaviour is a matter for the landlord in the first instance. There are a number of avenues open to landlords in such cases, including the mediation service for landlords and tenants operated by the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) and/or recourse to the Garda Síochána and/or the Courts in relation to the enforcement of the law in dealing with anti-social or criminal behaviour.
Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 tenants are obliged not to behave within a dwelling, or in the vicinity of it, in a way that is anti-social. Landlords are obliged to enforce the tenant’s obligations, and may seek termination of a tenancy due to a tenant’s antisocial behaviour. Landlords who fail to enforce the tenant’s obligations may be subject to a fine imposed by the PRTB. Termination of the tenancy would result in the termination of rent supplement.
The Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 provides the Department with the authority to refuse, suspend or terminate payment of a rent supplement in the case of a person who has been required to deliver up possession of a dwelling provided by a housing authority or an approved body where the reasons for that requirement include anti-social behaviour or the interests of good estate management. Statistics are not available on the number of rent supplement cases withdrawn for this reason.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to review the operation of the rent supplement to ensure that tenants who are receiving long term support from the State under the rent supplement scheme are subject to the same type of anti-social behaviour regime as local authority tenants. The most appropriate way for this to happen is for local authorities to take over responsibility for meeting the accommodation needs of these individuals, which would also result in these individuals being subject to the local authority vetting procedures. This will be delivered through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) with local authorities taking over the responsibility for meeting the accommodation needs of individuals who have long term housing needs and are currently in receipt of rent supplement. The Department is currently working closely with the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government to implement a pilot of the HAP scheme in early 2014.
