Cllr Kelly said;
"Last year the government
devised new maximum rent limits for people who were availing of rent
supplement. These new limits were
carelessly put together with little attention being played to actual rental
prices in an area before an often unrealistic limit was set there."
"An onus was placed on
tenants who received letters informing them of the new criteria to renegotiate
their rent with the landlord. The
tenants were left without support even if it the negotiations led to them being
forced to break their contract which could result in the loss of their security
deposits.”
"Its an unfortunate legacy
of the last Fianna Fail led government that adequate social housing was not
devised to meet the demands of that time.
As we entered a recession the demand grew but still little effort was made
to tackle the problem."
"According to the
government, Rent supplement is a temporary benefit provided to offer short-term
income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people
living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their
accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation
available to them from another source.
Without the availability of social housing people on rent allowance have
nowhere else to go and will not be able to function without this payment."
The following is the text of Cllr
Kelly's motion. "Taking into
consideration the recent Credit Union survey on Household Income I would ask
this Council to call on the Minister for Social Protection to urgently review
the recent and drastic cuts to the rent allowance."
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