Rent allowance reduced by 8% without a murmur from the media

national | housing | news report Monday September 14, 2009 14:25 by PoorPerson

Another stealth attack on the silent poor...

Single persons seeking rent allowance can now look forward to being net 7-8% worse off than previously was the case thanks to new rates.

And no reductions for sharing either!

Currently in the Galway area, Assuming you were on a rent of 110
(110 is the normal maximum for a single person renting to my knowledge. if your accomodation costs more, you pay it all out of your dole of course. )

You used to pay a contribution towards your rent which used to be 13 euro from your dole

This contribution has officially been raised to 17 euro which is at least 30% more than before

Then on top of that, on the remaining balance they have just slapped on another 8% reduction with no explanation at all.

For example:
------------------

previously:
assuming your rent was 110 euro
you paid your landlord 13 euro, the state paid him the balance of 97 euro.

now:
you pay 17 euro plus another 8% of the balance (93 euro) (i.e. 9 euro), which comes to 26 euro. The state pays 84 euro, just like that.

The letter supplied to rent allowance seekers stated that "this letter can be used to negotiate a reduction from your landlord"
In other words, it is up to each tenant to negotiate with their landlord for a reduction on an individual basis. Good luck there!

Essentially what this has done is reduced social welfare for those in rented accomodation by 13 euro

Assuming you are paid approx 180 euro on social welfare, this amounts to over 7.2% of a net decrease in your income

i.e. previously you had 180-13= 167 euro net
and now you have 180-26= 154 euro net

Thats quite a considerable cut for anyone, never mind for someone whose income goes mostly on food and who is just barely making ends meet at the bottom of the income ladder.

No real mention of this in the media. They just quietly put the boot into the silent poor, because they could.

and this is after the xmas bonus fiasco (which amounted to a 2% cut) and BEFORE they implement their real social welfare cuts.

So essentially so far there has been a 9.2% cut in income for some of the poorest in society to "do our patriotic duty" cleaning up after the bankers and property developers. How much more "patriotic duty" is reasonable for this sector of society to pay for further huge loans to people like Carroll?