Tipperary carer advocates in plea for housing rent change

Pressure is mounting on Tipperary County Council to disregard the Carers’ Allowance/Benefit and the Working Family Payment when calculating the rent of council tenants.

A motion in the names of councillors Richie Molloy, the manager of the Family Carers branch in Clonmel, JIm Ryan, Seamus Norris, Mairin McGrath and Annemarie Ryan was debated at the July meeting of Tipperary County Council.
The councillors proposed that from 2024 Tipperary County Council disregards the Carers’ Allowance/Benefit and the Working Family Payment when calculating the rent of council tenants.

ASSESSMENT OF MEANS
Cllr Molloy told the meeting that carers in the community were opposed to the policy of the county council as it took into account what they receive in carers allowance when applying what rent they would pay.
He told the meeting that anybody in receipt of carers allowance had to go through a rigorous process concerning assessment of means.

Cllr Molloy told members and officials that being a career was a very intense role and took up a huge amount of time that in many cases amounts to a 24 hour working day.
He said that a lot of people paid lip service to family carers but little practical assistance was forthcoming.
Cllr Molloy said carers had to meet a lot of costs that other householders would not have to meet.
He appealed to officials not to take into account the carers allowance when calculating rent.
Cllr Molloy said he was aware that other local authorities disregarded the carers allowance when calculating rent and he asked why Tipperary County Council could not do the same.

Cllr Annemarie Ryan said she was not satisfied with the reply from the council on the issue and felt the comparison made to rent in the private sector was unfair.
The Tipperary Town councillor said family carers saved the health services millions by looking after family members at home.
Cllr Ryan said that Tipperary County Council disregarded the Carers’ Allowance for the Tenant Purchase Scheme but did not disregard it when calculating rent.
She could not understand that and called on Tipperary County Council to disregard the carers allowance when calculating rent.
“Other councils are finding a way to do it and it is very important we do as well,” said Cllr Ryan when highlighting how other councils can disregard the carers allowance when calculating rent.

DEDICATED GROUP
Cllr Máirín McGrath said carers did Trojan work in helping to keep loved ones at home and taking pressure off health services.
She said family carers did not get the credit they deserved. They were a very dedicated group of people who worked for €1 an hour.

“If other councils can disregard the carers allowance, why can’t we?” asked Cllr McGrath.
Cllr Seamus Norris said councillors should ignore the reply to the motion.
He described it as a non-answer.
Cllr Norris said that other councils disregarded the carers allowance when calculating rent and so too should Tipperary County Council.

DRIVE ON
“We should drive on and do it,” said Cllr Norris.
Cllr Seamus Hanafin suggested that the council officials come back with more figures concerning the number of family carers living in council houses and what it would cost if carers allowance was disregarded and where that money could be made up.
“We should know exactly what we are talking about,” said Cllr Hanafin.
Cllr Marie Murphy said she did not disagree with the motion but felt that the members should have the full facts and figures before them when discussing the motion.

Cllr Molloy said he did not know how many people who qualified for the carers allowance were tenants of the council.
“If we want to recognise the value of carers and the work they are doing this is one way of doing that,” said Cllr Molloy who stood over his proposal calling on the council to disregard the carers allowance when calculating rent.
Cllr David Dunne said he supported the motion.
“Where Tipperary leads, others follow, but we are not leading on this,” said Cllr Dunne.

Cllr Annemarie Ryan said she had no problem with the motion being put back to the September meeting to allow more information to be put before the members.

HARDSHIP FUND
Cllr Ryan told members that the council should look at the hardship fund as a way of resolving the matter not as a way of saying it cannot be done.
Cllr Molloy agreed to allow the motion to be put back to another meeting to allow further information to be put before the members.

Sinead Carr, Director of Housing, told the members that this was not the first time the issue was raised.
She told the members that she was very conscious of the value of family carers to communities, the savings they create for Government by looking after people in their own homes and the value that caring for people in their own homes brings.

She told the members that the council had to look at the whole issue and said rent payable was proportionate to income.
Sinead Carr said that rent contributions were 19% of their income compared to between 30% and 40% in the private sector. This demonstrated that the council does take into account the need to support tenants.
She said the rent charged by the council did not cover the costs of servicing and repairing homes.
Sinead Carr told the members that there were still discussions on-going at a national level concerning this issue. The council did not want to be in a position to remove something only to have to put it back in again depending on the outcome of the discussions being held at national level regarding a national differential rent scheme.

FAIR
She said that since 2022 the council has had to deal with 90 hardship cases concerning rent.15 of those involved Carers’ Allowance and 14 involved working family payments. This was out of a total of over 6,000 working accounts. This meant that 0.4% of account holders applied for the hardship facility.
The housing director said she was satisfied that the way the rent system was set up was fair and proportionate.
Members deferred a vote on the matter after agreeing that that motion be discussed again at the September or October meeting.