MINISTER FOR Social Affairs Mary Hanafin has said the level of rent supplement will be reviewed shortly in the light of falling rents.
A number of surveys in recent months has pointed to significant reductions in rent, the most recent of which indicates rent levels nationally dropped by 12 per cent over the past year.
However, tenants’ rights group Threshold says rents in the lower end of the market are falling at a much slower rate and any lowering in the level of supplement would put vulnerable people under greater pressure.
In a statement, Ms Hanafin said current rent supplement limits were last reviewed in the middle of 2008 and will apply until the end of this year.
However, she said the department can – if appropriate – amend this in order to ensure those in receipt of rent supplement can “get quality accommodation at the most affordable price”.
She said rent limits were under review and information from the upcoming results of a Central Statistics Office survey of private rent levels will be analysed to see what impact the market has had on rental levels.
The rent supplement is an emergency payment aimed at those on social welfare to ensure they are in a position to pay their rents. The average weekly rent supplement payment at the end of 2008 was €126. Some 77,000 people receive rent supplement.
In response, Bob Jordan of Threshold warned that with more people falling on hard times, it was critical that rents were made affordable. “However, any reduction in the current level of rent supplement – particularly in high-demand areas within cities – could prove hugely damaging by pushing more people to the margins of the rental market, and potentially increasing the levels of homelessness.”
He added that, even in a climate of falling rents, reasonable accommodation at an affordable price was particularly difficult to find in Dublin city centre and surrounding districts.
Last year more than €440 million in rent supplement was paid by the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
Earlier this week, Fine Gael called on the Government to lower rent supplement payments in the light of falling rents. The party’s social affairs spokeswoman, Olwyn Enright TD, said such a move could save the State about €55 million.
The suggestion was described as a “disgraceful attack” on the most vulnerable by Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald.