Rent Allowance for people not on local housing list

Hi,

Myself and my wife have been living in non-supplemented private rented accomadation in Kildare for the last 8 months. We no longer can afford the rent here due to business being bad and social welfare cuts.

We have a house we can move into in Dublin that is owned by a friends dad. He has agreed to accept rent allowance and is cleared by the local authorities to accept.

I'm just wondering if anybody knows if we qualify for rent allowance in Dublin, even though we're not on a housing list?

From reading info on welfare.ie I gather because we have been in private rented accomodation for 6+ months we do not need to be on a housing list to qualify for rent allowance. Am I correct?

Here is the page with that info:

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Schemes/SupplementaryWelfareAllowance/Pages/RentSupplement.aspx

Specific section:

You may be eligible for Rent Supplement if the accommodation is suitable for your needs, the rent is below the maximum rent level set for your county and you are:

• Assessed in the last 12 months by a local authority as being eligible for and in need of social housing or
• Living in accommodation for homeless people for 6 months (183 days) out of the last 12 months or
• Living in private rented accommodation for 6 months (183 days) out of the last 12 months or
• A tenant of accommodation provided under one of the Social Housing Schemes

Click to expand...

We plan on moving in mid February and are handing in notice to the landlord tomorrow. We are in real money problems and need cheaper accomodation ASAP, so we're really hoping we don't need to go on a housing list as we've heard that it can take months for it to be processed.

A couple more questions;

Does the rent for the house have to be below the maximum set? Or can it be a bit over and we pay the remainder.

Example:

Rent is E850. We as a married couple with no children qualify for maximum E744 per month rent allowance. Can we get the allowance and pay the difference ourselves? Or will the move be blocked because the overall rent goes above E744?

And, minimum contribution from tennant is E24 per week. As we're a married couple, is this E24 per week each? Or E24 total for both of us?

A bit confusing. We'll be going to see a professional about it next week. But they're not available 'til Tuesday morning, so I thought I'd see if anyone can relieve some of my worries on this, here.

Thanks,
Shane

If you can show evidence of renting for the past 8 months, and have a valid reason for moving, then you should be okay to apply for Rent Supplement without having to have a housing needs assessment carried out.

The rent charged must be below the maximum limit to qualify - you won't be eligible for Rent Supplement if the rent exceeds the limit for the area and family size. The limit for a couple in Dublin is €806 per calendar month, not €744 so you might be able to negotiate the rent downwards to the limit. (the limit is 186 weekly which is 186 x 52/12 per calendar month = 806).

The minimum contribution is per family - so only one is applied.

You didn't mention your income other than to say that "business is bad". If either you or your wife work more than 29 hours per week, you won't be eligible for Rent Supplement as you'll be deemed to be in full-time employment.

Thanks alot for your reply. Very helpful.

I calculated the monthly allowance wrongly, by multiplying the weekly rate by 4.