Rent allowance Dublin

Formation

My nephew is moving to dublin soon and needs to know if he needs to have been renting for a few months before he is eligible for rent allowance.

In dublin does he need to be renting a room for E300 or less to be eligible?

any idea on the waiting period until he can collect rent allowance payments?

Kristopherus

Is he moving to Dublin to work? If so, he will not qualify for RA. If he's on welfare, he will have to be at his new residence long enough to get on the housing list. That will be extremely difficult in Dublin. He's very likely to be told by a CWO that he will not qualify as he could live cheaper elsewhere. That may sound harsh, but the RA scheme has been considerably tightened up over the past 2 yrs, and only those who can provide proof of eligibility will be considered. Providing that proof is the difficult part. You cannot move around as you wish any more & expect the state to provide those supports.

Balagan

To get Rent Supplement, you need to have been renting privately for 6 of the past 12 months having been able to afford the rent for that period and have since suffered a change in financial circumstances. Alternatively, you need to be approved by the local authority as being in need of social housing. It seems that many Community Welfare Officers require applicants to be approved for social housing even if they have been renting privately for the required period.

The details of how to qualify for Rent Supplement are here http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/supplementary_welfare_schemes/rent_supplement.html including the maximum rent levels for Dublin. Processing an application for approval by local authority does take time and the authority would be able to give a ballpark figure as to how long that process might take.

Formation

He is moving to dublin as he stands a better chance of getting work up here.

I will tell him to go to the local authority as he has not been renting in the last 9 months.

Any other advice appreciated.