Jobless could become homeless

17 Jan 2003

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed strongly criticises the recent decision by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to place a cap on rent supplement payments.* This effectively, eliminates the discretionary powers of the Community Welfare Officers and as a result any person seeking a rent supplement on a property where the rent exceeds the thresholds set by the Health Boards will now be refused. This Ministerial decision aims to restrain landlords from raising rents but in effect does little to control rents and instead will increase homelessness as tenants will be unable to continue to secure their accommodation without the assistance of the rent supplement.

Mr Eric Conroy, General Secretary of the INOU highlighted that the impact of this decision will be drastic because one in three tenants in the private rented sector receive a rent supplement. ‘Along with increases in homelessness, large numbers of people will be added to the already lengthy Local Authority housing lists thereby placing excessive pressures on the present inadequate housing system’, he said. ‘It would appear that little consultation between Government departments on the impact of this decision has taken place.’

‘We also criticise this move as being yet another attack on those dependant on social welfare. The Budget only offered a miserly increase of €6 to the lowest social welfare payment but the rent supplement recipients lost €4.40 of this as their contribution to the rent increased from €7.60 to €12. These changes set in the environment of 5% inflation results in many recipients having to survive below the Supplementary Welfare Allowance amount of €124.80 per week,’ added Mr Conroy. ‘Such an amount is unsustainable and will result in increased poverty and exclusion.’

On a practical level, this decision places the Community Welfare Officers in an extremely invidious position because they are tied between implementing the change and faced with the moral dilemma that by rejecting claimants it could force them into homelessness.