Income thresholds for social housing to rise in just five of 31 local authority areas next month

Income limits for social housing will increase in just five local authority areas from next month, rather than in all 31 as anticipated, the Department of Housing has confirmed.

The move to raise income thresholds for eligibility for social housing in counties Clare, Carlow, Laois, Galway and Westmeath — and not in areas with acute affordability issues such as Dublin and Cork — has been described as an “absolute disgrace” and “abandoning modest income families”.

Effective from 1st October, the ‘baseline’ income limit to be entitled to social housing and Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), will increase in those areas from €25,000 net annually to €30,000.

In the rest of the country, they will remain at between €25,000 and €42,000, depending on the local authority area and household size. In the four Dublin authorities and in Cork City, the baseline threshold — ie for a single person — is €35,000 net annually, increasing to a maximum of €42,000 for a household of three adults and four children.

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These limits have not changed since 2011. Last year, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien announced a review of the limits. It was completed in December but remains unpublished.

In response to a query from The Irish Times as to the expected publication date, a department spokesman said: “It is planned, on foot of a review of income eligibility for social housing, to scope and develop a new social housing income eligibility model. This work is expected to be complete by end-2022.

“Pending completion, five local authorities — Carlow, Clare, Galway County, Laois and Westmeath — will be moved from Band 3 to Band 2 of the income eligibility model. As a result, the baseline income eligibility threshold for these areas will increase from €25,000 to €30,000.

“The change reflects the movement in rents in recent years in these areas and ensures local authority areas with similar accommodation costs continue to be grouped together in the respective bands.”

‘Not good enough’

Sinn Féin spokesman on housing, Eoin Ó Broin, said this was “just not good enough”.

“Large numbers of people are being cut off social housing lists after many years or are unable to get on the lists. This is happening at a time when private rents and house prices are rising and have passed their Celtic Tiger-era peak.

“Raising the threshold of the five lowest councils by a single band is just not good enough. The Government is effectively abandoning modest income families, who are paying up to 50 per cent of their income on rent, to the mercy of the market. The reason why is very clear: Government does not want the social housing waiting lists to rise irrespective of the real hardship that their inaction will cause.”

People Before Profit housing spokesman Richard Boyd Barrett said it was an “utter disgrace”.

“This Minister has had a report since the end of last year which he has refused to publish. This is a deliberate, and a massive stealth cut. Huge numbers of working-people working are thrown off lists and no longer eligible for housing supports. It is an utter scandal.”

Independent senator Victor Boyhan, member of the Oireachtas housing committee called for increases across all counties. He was “surprised by a Dublin-based Minister leaving the four Dublin local authorities, and other cities, out”.

John Mark McCafferty, chief executive of the housing charity Threshold, said a “significant number” of the households his staff support have incomes “just above the qualifying thresholds”. While increasing thresholds would assist them with HAP, it was “not the panacea” as, even with HAP, “an adequate supply of rental accommodation just isn’t there”.