Rent Allowance

joannaman

Hi there,

I'm in the process of applying for Rent Allowance and one of the pre-requisites is that you have to have been living in private rented accomodation for 6 of the last 12 months. I had been out in Canada for six months and provided a letter from my landlady out there saying that I was a paying tenant with her. I was originally taking a place in Rathmines (which eventually fell through) and the local officer there checked with his supervisor to see that my living in Canada was acceptable (there was some doubt as to whether the 6 months could also apply to living abroad) and he came back to me saying that it was fine. I ended up finding a place in Terenure as the Rathmines guy assured me that the rules are the same everywhere (ie I would be entitled to apply for rent allowance) but the local officer there is saying that the Rathmines guy is wrong and that I am not entitled after all. I argued with him and he's going to double check with his supervisor but he's quite arrogant about the fact he's right. What can I do if he is insistent that I can't apply? The rathmines officer literally told me that everything was fine, and to go right ahead and take any place below the maximum rent level . It's stressing me out big time. I only moved to Dublin last week to look for work and this is taking up so much of my time that I have barely been able to look for a job yet.

thanks for any help with this.

edellc

the rathmines guy has a habit of this i see he did similar to me when i had to move and i ended up in harolds cross and had to deal with the terenure office....sounds like he is just being an idiot they have to approve you rent allowance if you are on social welfare and living in rent allowance acceptable place below the limit required...you should check out

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Publications/SW58/Pages/10WherecanIgetmoreinformation.aspx

or

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/social-welfare/social-welfare-payments/supplementary-welfare-schemes/rent_supplement

be persistent with him if it means going up every morning and wrecking his head do it and print off the info and bring it with you

and most importantly good luck

joannaman

Thanks for the reply. I went back to the Terenure office and got a offical refusal but was told I can appeal the decision, so I wrote a letter of complaint detailing all the misinformation I've been given and sent it off. It takes up to 3 weeks for a reply so once again i'm stuck in limbo waiting because of civil service ignorance.

edellc

good luck with your appeal hope it all works out if not find out who your local td is and go see him/her and see if they can help