Rent proposal criticised

ORGANISATIONS representing voluntary and community groups will today call on the Government to drop new proposals preventing anyone who hasn’t rented for six months or more from getting rent supplement.

The organisations say the Department of Social and Family Affairs restrictions will have a catastrophic effect on the weak and exposed sections of society, causing extreme hardship and possible homelessness.

If the proposal is introduced health boards will have the power to refuse rent supplement, and all applicants will in future have to be systematically assessed by their local authority to determine if they are in fact in need of housing.

Threshold chairman, Aideen Hayden, said the fact that community welfare officers have always had discretion on suitability for rent supplement seems to have been completely forgotten.

“Restricting rent supplement to those who have been renting for at least six months smacks of political point-scoring targeted at middle class taxpayers.

“If social housing programmes kept pace with the level of need, the rent supplement would not have to provide long-term accommodation for those requiring housing,” she said.

The proposal was also criticised by Mary Cunningham, director of the National Youth Council, who said young people who leave their parents’ home, new refugees and others in need of housing will not meet the six month renting condition, and could face real hardship.