Current Rent Supplement Levels not fit for purpose says Crowe

Dublin South West representative Seán Crowe TD has called on the Department of Social Protection to revise the rent supplement caps particularly in the Dublin area. Crowe said that scheme needs revising in order to adequately address the needs and high demand of families who are increasingly dependent on social welfare and in an extremely precarious and vulnerable situation.

The Tallaght based Deputy said that average waiting time for housing in the South Dublin County Council area has jumped from five to eight years in that last year and that the rent supplement system particularly in the Dublin area was meeting the need and not fit for purpose.

Deputy Seán Crowe said;

“Demand for rented accommodation is on the rise. Many young couples who traditionally would have bought homes cannot now do so for a variety of reasons including lower incomes, lack of access to credit and uncertainty about their future.

“Simultaneously, many of those who have been living in private rented accommodation on a long-term basis have had their wages cut or have lost their jobs, forcing them to seek cheaper accommodation towards the lower end of the market.

This has had a knock-on effect for those in receipt of rent supplement. There is now more demand for rental properties overall, and more demand for properties at the lower end of the market, in particular.

“More and more people who dependent on social welfare payments are in situations where they cannot get accommodation and are ending up homeless or staying in severely overcrowded situations.

The waiting lists on local authorities are getting longer and longer with the waiting time on South Dublin County Council jumping from five to eight years in recent times.

The current rent supplement levels are not fit for purpose particularly in the Dublin area and I challenge any Minister or any Government TD or Senator to find housing accommodation either one bed, two bed or three bed in this catchment area on the amount being laid down by the Department of Social Welfare.

“I am publicly calling on the Department of Social Protection to address this issue and tackle the illegal top-up of rent supplement which landlords are demanding off tenants so they can recoup the difference between the maximum rent cap that the Department allows and what they are actually demanding .

“These under the counter payments are growing on a daily basis as less suitable rented accommodation is all that isavailable, especially in the Dublin area.

“ The demands being made by these landlords are only pushing people further in to poverty and the Minister Joan Burton is either living in a bubble or deliberately ignoring this growing problem.”