Government backtracks on rent allowance cut

THE Government is on the verge of a partial U-turn on a second of the “savage sixteen” cuts announced last November.

Following Social Affairs Minister Mary Coughlan’s reversal earlier this year of cuts affecting widows’ pensions, her department and the Department of the Environment are expected today to announce new rental allowance arrangements.

The Irish Examiner understands that the new measures are designed to take some of the “hard edges” off major changes introduced in the rent supplement scheme in this year’s Estimates.