Five local councillors are calling for two payment schemes to be disregarded when calculating council rents in Tipperary.
This was brought forward by Councillors Jim Ryan, Mairín McGrath, Richie Molloy, Seamie Morris, and Anne-Marie Ryan at this month’s plenary meeting.
The motion proposes that, from 2024, Tipperary County Council will omit the Carers Allowance and Working Family Payment when calculating the rent of council tenants.
Councillor Richie Molloy began the discussion at the meeting by stating that a number of other local authorities don’t take the Carers Allowance into consideration when assessing rents.
He made the point that anyone in receipt of the Carers Benefit has to meet very strict medical criteria, such as caring for 35 hours a week, meaning they are a full-time caregiver.
The allowance is worth 230 euros a week, breaking down to roughly a euro an hour for anyone caring on a 24/7 basis, despite the costs it entails to be a caregiver.
Cllr. Anne-Marie Shiner pointed out that caregivers save the health service millions of euros every year and that if the council has the discrepancy to do so, then it should be looked at.
Cllr. Shine was speaking in relation to the Tenant Purchase Scheme, where the allowance is disregarded when purchasing a council home but isn’t when renting.
The reply suggested that the Government is in the process of announcing a new plan for caregivers, but Cllr. Morris was quick to point out that this has been the case since 2014.
Sinead Carr said she is very conscious of the value that caregivers hold and acknowledges the savings they make for the government.
However, she says that in terms of rent and their net incomes, those on low incomes pay rent proportionate to their income with the help of the Differential Rent Scheme.
About 19% of the income earned by caregivers, on average, goes to their rental income when compared to the private sector’s 30-40% applied to their rent, demonstrating that the council takes into account the social circumstances of tenants.
