Wait for rent aid hits three months

MORE than 1,000 people in Cork city with insufficient means to meet accommodation costs face a three-month wait for rent supplement because of a change in how it is awarded.

The waiting time for support, however, is not as harsh in Dublin, Galway, Limerick or Waterford.

The change, announced in the supplementary budget last April and enforced since July 27, means applicants for social housing are no longer automatically entitled to rent supplement by virtue of the local authority simply certifying that they have applied.