Supplement cuts to take effect amid concerns

Cuts to the rent supplement will come into effect at the end of January, while creche supplements and a supplement to help with debt repayments will no longer be approved after tomorrow.

Details of how cuts to four key social welfare payments will be implemented have been obtained by The Irish Times. The cuts to rent, creche, diet and Money Advice and Budgetary Service (MABS) supplements were announced in last month's Book of Estimates.

New applications for the MABS supplement - paid where people had agreed a debt-repayment schedule - will not be approved after tomorrow.

Plans to discontinue paying the rent supplement to anyone who had not already been renting for at least six months were criticised by anti-poverty groups and unions representing community welfare officers, who will implement the cuts. They said it would lead to mass homelessness.

Following consultation, the regulation says: "A person shall not be entitled to rent supplement unless that person has been in rented accommodation, accommodation for homeless persons or an institution (including a prison or place of detention) for not less than 183 days in the preceding 12-month period."

The new provision shall not apply where a person is "homeless (in accordance with the Housing Act, 1988); assessed as having a housing need; a tenant in accommodation provided by a voluntary body; aged 65 or over, or in receipt of a disability allowance, invalidity pension or blind pension".

It will also be a condition of any rent supplement claim that the claimant has not refused a second offer of accommodation in the preceding 12 months.

The One-Parent Exchange Network and the Simon Communities - who campaigned against the cut - welcomed the exclusion of those defined as homeless or as having a housing need from the renting stipulation. However they expressed "serious concern" that local authorities would not have the capacity to assess the housing needs of new applicants for the rent supplement.

Also controversial was the planned discontinuation of the creche supplement, made to children with emotional or social needs. Ms Coughlan had hinted this payment could be taken over by health boards and effectively continued. However, no new applicants for the creche supplement will be approved after tomorrow.

The diet supplement payment, made to people with special dietary needs, is to be phased out over a number of years.