State pays €500m a year on rent supplement

THE Government is paying in excess of €500 million annually on rent supplement for 94,000 people – despite four years ago devising a money-saving scheme to move them off the emergency payment.

Rent supplement was originally intended as a short-term payment. But with numbers in receipt of it growing year on year, the Government drew up plans to move all those in receipt of rent supplement for 18 months or more across to the new Rent Allowance Scheme (RAS).

However, latest figures show that more than 35,000 people eligible for RAS are still being paid rent supplement.