Dessie Ellis TD has raised concerns at the Department of Social Protection instruction to the Family Income Support section of the department to only process applications received on or after November 5th. The effect of this is that applications coming in now will be processed before the applications of families who have already been waiting for five and six months.
Deputy Ellis said every effort must be made to ensure all applicants are processed and paid before Christmas.
“I understand that the minister, along with senior officials, has taken a decision to instruct the Family Income Support section of the department to only process applications received on or after November 5th. The effect of this is that applications coming in now will be processed before the applications of families who have already been waiting for five and six months. The new applications may be processed immediately while those unfortunate enough to have made their application earlier will be left waiting.
“I understand that most of the families caught up in the pre-November 5th back log will not receive any payment at all before Christmas.
“Over 7,000 families with almost 16,000 children are caught up in this backlog. What are these families to do? What are they to do for Christmas? What are they to do with the growing arrears on their household bills?
“The average applicant who is waiting since June will by now be owed €3,500 in back payments. If they are left waiting until January, this will have risen to €4,700. Many families will have no option but to borrow these sums from money lenders and the cost of these loans will be many multiples of the money that the department owes them now.” ENDS
Family Income Support applicants must be processed by Christmas – Ellis
Receivers of rent supplement must be protected from losing homes – Ellis
Dessie Ellis TD
Sinn Fein Housing spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD has called on the government to shield those in receipt of rent supplement from any further cuts and to protect those who are at threat of losing their homes due to cuts already imposed by the Fine Gael and Labour coalition. He made his comments following the publication of a report by Focus Ireland on the Rent Supplement scheme.
Ellis continued;
“The report says that by cutting rent supplement the government were seeking to use it to lower rents generally. Not only is this ethically wrong, playing with the lives of thousands of people on the scheme but it is also a completely wrong policy which has been shown not to work and ignores the reason for higher rents.
“People who were struggling before on rent supplement, are now fearful of losing their homes thanks to government cuts to the scheme. Quite a few already have and are now struggling to find alternative accommodation based on the reduced supplement.
“The government has cut and cut again from the most vulnerable and this cannot continue.
“They must assure people that rent supplement will not be cut in this budget, they must row back on previous cuts and put in place measures which make it easier for people to find accommodation which will take rent supplement and at reasonable rates.
“This should include direct dealings by the state with landlords to secure value for money and good quality accommodation for tenants.”
ENDS