Ruling may deter avoidance of housing assistance scheme

The Citizens Information Board believes a ruling that three tenants suffered discrimination by being refused access to the housing assistance payment (HAP) will deter other landlords from seeking to shy away from the scheme.

The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that the three tenants had been discriminated against under the Equal Status Act on the grounds of housing assistance, a provision added to the law at the beginning of last year.

The case was brought with the support of the Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) and the Citizens Information Service, the latter of which said it had dealt with more than 9,000 queries in relation to HAP in the first half of this year alone.