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18 November 2020
Go to release: Social Housing in Ireland 2019 - Analysis of Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Scheme
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (18 November 2020) published Social Housing in Ireland 2019 - Analysis of Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Scheme. This publication explores the housing, employment, benefits and earnings circumstances of households before, during and after participation in HAP as well as details on landlords and the rented properties.
Commenting on the report, Justin Anderson, Statistician, said: ‘The number of households in HAP has risen every year since the scheme started in 2014 and stood at 57,630 by 2019.
The most common employment sectors for new entrants to HAP in 2019 were Wholesale & Retail Trade, which accounted for 19% of working HAP tenants. The next highest was Accommodation & Food Services at 16%. The least common employment sectors for tenants starting HAP in 2019 included Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing, Information & Communication, and Public Administration & Defence.
More than four in ten (44%) of HAP tenants spent less than a year on the Local Authority housing waiting list before entering the scheme, while just over one in ten (12%) waited seven years.
The median household earned income of HAP tenants in employment had risen by 18% two years after entering a HAP tenancy.
Just over one in four of those on the housing waiting lists in 2016 and whose basis of need was dependence on Rent Supplement (28.9%) or unsuitable household circumstances (25.5%) moved into a HAP tenancy.
The median household earned income for HAP entrants in 2018 was highest in Meath (€18,606), Cork City (€17,597) and Fingal (€17,374) and lowest in Mayo (€7,842), Leitrim (€8,471) and Carlow (€8,796).
The proportion of new HAP households who have been referred from homeless services rose steadily from 3.1% in 2014 to 21.1% by 2019.
The Local Electoral Areas with the most HAP properties in Q2 2019 are Dundalk South (857) and Drogheda Urban (816). The local authority with the highest proportion of rental properties (registered with the Residential Tenancy Board (RTB)) which were used for HAP was Louth at 41.8%.
More than 85% of HAP landlords had one HAP rental property in 2019. This compares with 80% of all landlords from the RTB.’
Commenting further on the report, Kieran Culhane, Senior Statistician, said: ‘This publication was developed in collaboration with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH). It's an example of the policy-relevant research projects the CSO are developing as part of the CSO’s leadership role of the Irish Statistical System. Our goal in the CSO is to maximise the variety and volume of data available to provide high quality information to the Government, businesses and citizens. High quality statistics are the foundation of evidence-based decision-making and the basis for accountability. They help people to understand the changes taking place in Ireland’s economy and in our society.
Under the auspices of the Statistics Act 1993, and in compliance with all relevant data protection legislation, the CSO is in a unique position to gather and link administrative data sources held by Government Departments and Agencies and evaluate their potential for statistical use.’
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