Rent Supplement Reports

5 Oct 2004

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed wish to refute the statement made by the former Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Mary Coughlan in relation to the publication of the report into the rent supplement changes (article dated Irish Times 29/9/04).

The Minister said that ‘all the social partners who were involved and equally critical of the measures have now come to the view that this is the best way forward’. From the INOU perspective this is not the case. Like many other organisations, the INOU acknowledged that the rent supplement scheme must be adjusted but not in this manner.

The working group that the INOU was involved in was valuable but its terms of reference were very narrow. It only examined the impact of some of the changes to the rent supplement scheme introduced last November. These were a) exclusion of a spouse / partner in full time employment, b) requirement to have been in renting for 6 months c) referral to local authority / refusal of offers.

The findings from a survey of those who were refused rent supplement showed that 57 cases out of 498 were refused on account of the above reasons. It is unknown whether these 57 cases reapplied and were successful and / or appealed the decision and were successful.

The INOU concurs with the recommendations of the group and also of those arising from the more qualitative study by Centrecare ‘Creating Crisis; the Impact of the Rent Supplement Restrictions (which the INOU also contributed towards). We hope that the roll out of the new initiative announced in July 2004 to meet the long-term housing needs of rent supplement recipients under the auspices of Mr Seamus Brennan will incorporate all the recommendations. This will ensure that those either in receipt of rent supplement or those being referred to the local authority will secure the best possible accommodation for their needs.