Housing Assistance Payments not fit for purpose, charities claim
The Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) system is not fit for purpose and needs to be changed as the gap between HAP and rents in the private rental sector is putting more families at risk of homelessness.
This is according to a new survey from two charities involved in the sector – Threshold and the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP).
Threshold CEO John-Mark McCafferty told RTE Radio’s show that while HAP is intended to help families secure a place to live, the reality is that HAP limits are insufficient to secure private rental accommodation.
The system has a number of design faults with inconsistencies between local authorities offering top-up payments with some families receiving the top up one year, but they might not receive it again, he said.
Threshold and SVP are calling for a complete review of HAP and its interaction with the private rental sector to determine the next steps for HAP given the changing landscape of housing and renting in Ireland.
The charities also called for greater provision of social housing by local authorities. There is an urgent need for “real” affordable rental housing, where rent reflects ability to pay.
Since its introduction in 2014, HAP has grown from 500 tenancies to almost 48,000 at the end of 2018. As part of its Rebuilding Ireland strategy the Government aims to bring that figure up to 83,760 HAP tenancies by 2021.
Recipients of HAP are allowed to top-up the payment, once the total rent they pay doesn’t exceed 30% of their net income.
But the new survey, entitled ‘ ,’ carried out jointly by the two charities, found that 20% of the tenants surveyed were paying more than the 30% limit, with 10% paying more than two-fifths of their net income on rent.
Almost half (45%) of those paying a top-up said that they were struggling with paying utility bills, buying groceries and covering childcare and school costs as a result.
Mr McCafferty, said that unsanctioned and unaffordable top-ups are increasing features of HAP.
This was a feature of the rent supplement payments system which HAP was designed to prevent
He added that local authorities should be consistent in how they applied top up or ‘uplift’ payments.
Another major issue highlighted in the survey is the lack of controls over the standard of accommodation accessed by HAP tenants.
In 2017 only 4.5% of all private rented properties registered with the Residential Tenancies Board were inspected.
Of these 79% failed to meet regulatory requirements. However, only 4.5% of these were issued with notices and legal action was taken in only five cases. Of the 12,833 dwellings which failed to meet regulatory standards, no action was taken with regard to 12,321 of these dwellings.
