Republican News · Thursday 21 August 2003

Rent supplement spending shows need for social housing

Portlaoise councillor Brian Stanley says figures he has received for the cost of the rent supplement scheme, both at local and national level, indicate the government is involved in crisis management. The scheme is administered by the health boards, which pay rent supplements to tenants living on low incomes in private rented accommodation to help them with their weekly rent.

Last year the Midland Health Board paid out over €9 million in rent supplements, €1,891,973 of this was paid to tenants in Laois. The overall figure for the state reached over €252 million in 2002.

The number of people in need of rent supplements and the amount being paid out under the scheme has increased dramatically in recent years. For example, in 1999 the total figure paid out by the government was £101 million. In 1998 in the Midland Health Board region, the scheme cost the taxpayer £2,700,938, of which £621,856 was in Laois. These figures point to a substantial increase at both local and national level.

When rent supplements were first introduced in the 1980s, they were used as a short-term measure to assist those on low incomes to rent accommodation while they were waiting to be housed by the council or to provide their own housing. What's happening now, says Stanley, is that the scheme is being used as a long-term measure to house a large section of the population. "In Laois alone, there were 490 households receiving it last year," he says. "This compares with 323 in 1998. I know people who have been living in rented accommodation and dependent on rent supplements for over ten years.

"Those on low incomes who cannot afford to buy their own home and who are awaiting council housing should receive rent supplements. But paying out large sums of taxpayers' money for private rented accommodation should not be used as a long-term substitute for the shortage of social housing. The emphasis needs to be on providing sustainable long term solutions, such as, more local authority housing, voluntary housing schemes and supporting housing associations."