Rent Supplement Rates

My partner and I recently applied for Rent Allowance. I am on Back to Education Allowance and she is on Jobseekers Allowance. We both receive the top rate payment of 204.30 a week. From what I can gather, this is due to my payment being a stand alone payment that does not count as means. The SW website states
All training allowances received by the spouse/partner are disregarded in the assessment of means.

When we received our rent supplement however, we were told that as we are on the top payments we were only entitled to a reduced rate, as the SWA income limit is 339 per household. With the payment they are giving us, things are very tight, especially as I am not in receipt of a maintenance grant.
However, we think that there may have been an error as the SW website states that income in excess of the SWA limit, that is from a BTEA payment falls under the Additional Income Disregard when calculating the rent supplement. In that case, surely we are entitled to a higher Rent supplement, as this was not taken into account by the CWO?
Can anyone shed any light on whether my thinking is correct, and if it is worth appealing the current payment?

I'm afraid the calculation is correct.

The payments which are considered under Additional Household Income are

-Additional household income' includes income from employment, maintenance payments in excess of €95.23, Family Income Supplement, Community Employment (CE), Back to Work Allowance, Back to Enterprise Allowance or FAS course.

Is the website incorrect then?
[broken link removed]

Section 3.5.4 states

he "additional income" is the amount of income in excess of the SWA rate, applicable to household circumstances and includes income derived from:

• Part time employment or part time self employment (under 30 hours per week)
• Full time employment or full time self employment (30 hours or over per week) where the claimant is accepted as in need of accommodation under the Rental Accommodation Scheme.
• Any employment or approved training scheme e.g. CE, BTWA, BTEA or FAS course
• Family Income Supplement with effect from 6th June 2007
• Maintenance Payments in excess of € 95.23

If the website is incorrect, where can I find out information as to when this provision for BTEA was changed?

BTEA in this case refers to Back to Enterprise Allowance (as listed in my first reply), not to Back to Education Allowance.

Back to Enterprise Allowance is the Back to Work Scheme for persons starting self-employment. BTWA is Back to Work Allowance for persons starting work as an employee.

It's unfortunate that both schemes have the same acronym - I made a similar error when researching my earlier reply for you.

What do you do if for some reason your' landlord refuses to accept rent-allowance? Can you appeal it? Or is it totaly at landlords' discretion?
Or do you have to move out in sense that you can't afford it & try & get somewhere affordable where landlord is receptive towards rent allowance?
I'd imaginit's an issue especialy as you've gotta get deposit together for other accomodation etc. & when yu're on dole, every penny/cent counts.

CarlowMan,

It's entirely up to the landlord to accept or refuse tenants who will be claiming Rent Supplement.

Hi Gippiman,

I am sorry to hijack this thread but I wonder if you can tell me that if I were to attend a CE scheme does this mean that any mortgage allownce I am receiving will be stopped? Or is it the case that each case is viewed on its own merits? Also I wold like to know is it also the caase that Mortgae/Rent supplement can only be paid for a maximum of 12 mths,is this also correct?

Ivor,
Your supplement wouldn't automatically be stopped, though it would be re-assessed.

There are some income disregards for persons on CE schemes, which means that not all of the additional income you get from the scheme would be assessed against you when working out your entitlement to Mortgage Interest Supplement.

Your CWO will be able to give you more detailed information on what your likely entitlement would be if you start the scheme.


One of the qualifying criteria for Mortgage Interest Supplement is that


Reasonable Interest isn't quantified, but may be compared with the Maximum Rent Limit which applies in the area.

If the above criteria is met (i.e. the interest is considered reasonable), then there is no time limit on payment of the supplement once there's an entitlement to same.

If the above criteria isn't met (i.e. interest isn't considered reasonable), the HSE can pay Mortgage Interest Supplement anyway, but can only pay for a max of 12 months.

Many thanks for your detailed reply Gippimann,much appreciated.