Falling rents ‘not an excuse’ to cut supplements

FALLING rents should not be used as an excuse to reduce rent supplement payments, housing charity Threshold has warned.

Threshold’s director, Bob Jordan, branded such a move a “rash cost-saving measure.”

He was responding yesterday to views expressed this week by a number of politicians — including Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin — that the payment should be reviewed in light of falling rents.