Just a quick question, is the reant allowance lodged by the social welfare office in the landlord's bank account or does the money go to the tenant to then pay the landlord?
the RA is given to the tenant until such time as the landlord and tenant give written request to CWO for payment to be transferred directly to landlord
the CWO I was dealing with said cheques are issued 25th of every month, and depending on geographic area will determine how long waiting lists are, it will be back dated if approved, in Dublin 10 it was c7 weeks, but a recent poster with a property in Meath didn't have to wait as long
Be careful! I've just been left in the lurch by a tenant who was waiting for there ra to come through. After waiting 10 weeks he's decided to leave claiming he got no money.
the RA is given to the tenant until such time as the landlord and tenant give written request to CWO for payment to be transferred directly to landlord
From what I understand, it varies from one health board/SW office to another.
A friend of mine has property in Co. Wicklow and Co. Wexford. In Wicklow she get the RA transferred direct into her bank account and in Wexford it's not their policy to pay landlords direct and the RA is paid to the tenant.
sounds like porky pies to me. If the tenant is eligible for RS then they should be eligible from the moment their circumstances (which enable them to claim, eg unemployment) changed. Perhaps gipiman etc. could confirm (though RS is a HSE payment just administered by the CWO I believe).
As Murphaph said, if the tenant qualifies, it's generally backdated to the date of application - it would be highly unusual for it not to be backdated.
The only things I can think of which might stop backdating are -
- the tenant didn't actually apply when they said they did.
- the tenant applied, didn't initially qualify but qualified several weeks later (unusual, but could happen)