Centralised Rent Supplement waiting times

pprendeville

Moving out of our accomadation in Aug as landlord is getting married & moving back in. Currently living in Finglas in a 2 bed with 3 children. Hope to move a bit closer to DIT Aungier St so as I could get home to my wife during the day (college is usually 8-6 minimum as I get nothing done at home with kids (all under 3 yes old). Max price we can pay is €950 so might be asking a bit much to find a city centre place for that. Fingers crossed. Anyway, I believe applying for rent supplement in the inner city has been centralised recently so I called into the Social Welfare office on Bishop St across from DIT. They told me I could only telephone to find out about which areas needed to be applied for centrally, i.e. you don't go through a CWO. So here are the numbers I tried

1800520520 HSE: They don't do rent allowance anymore.
1890927770: Originally called 1890927770 (Rent Allowance Section, Government Buildings, Ballinalee Road, Longford.)  and given HSE number (1800520520). Called this number again and they told me they don't deal with Rent Allowance any longer. It's been transferred to social welfare offices.

Called Rent Allowance Section again. Was told the info on Welfare.ie. re Rent Allowance is out of date and they don't deal with it anymore. Note: its now called Rent Supplement, not Rent Allowance. 

1890800698 Central Rent Unit of The Dept. of Social Protection.
Called number three times. Was on hold for 15 minutes 1st time & it said "Thank you for holding, all our agents are busy at the moment" followed intermittently by "Thank you for continuing to hold". Then after 15 minutes the line goes silent. Wasn't cut off but no sound at all so hung up & called back. Same story after 12 minutes this time. Hung up after 16 minutes on the third occasion. Has anyone had any luck getting through recently? Can anyone advise which areas of the city centre require you to apply centrally and which areas through a CWO? Also, does it take a long time for central applications to be processed?

amtw

There are different central rents unit dealing with different local authority areas. The biggest delay is if they have to write back to you looking for more informtion. Make sure you enclose everything they are looking for. You will need proof from you landlord or their agent that they are the legal owner of the property, you will need proof that you have been renting for 6 out of the previous 12 months or that you have been assessed in the last year as having a housing need. You will also have to provide bank statements. There is a checklist with the application pack make sure you have all of the documents required and the waiting time shouldn't be more then a couple of weeks.

By the way, officially it was always Rent Supplement though most people call it Rent Allowance.

pprendeville

Cheers. Is the checklist available online?

amtw

Don't know of anywhere you will find a comprehensive list. Depending on your circumstances they will look for different documentation e.g. If you work part time you will have to provide payslips. If you go to the www.citizensinformtion.ie and put in rent supplement and open the first listing go down to the link for the Rent Supplement form on page 4 there is a checklist but it is not comprehensive.
Or ignore above and click on this link and then scroll down to page 4.
http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Forms/Documents/swa3.pdf