The statistician's comment, below, was edited on 20th October to amend a couple of discrepancies. The median household gross earned income for Dún Laoghaire Rathdown in 2022 is €25,039 (this previously incorrectly said €24,039). The number of households leaving HAP in 2022 was 9,880 (this previously incorrectly said 9,810).
For the first year since the scheme began in 2014, more households left the Housing Assistance (HAP) scheme in 2022 (9,880) than entered (6,590).
The local authority with the highest number of households in HAP in 2022 was Dublin City at 9,650. Dublin City also had the most new households enter the scheme in 2022 (950) and exit (1,070).
Over half of tenants coming into HAP in 2022 had been on the housing waiting list for less than a year.
For households starting HAP in 2022, 65% had some employment in the year - up from 37% in 2015.
Median gross earned income of working HAP households in 2022 was just under €20,000.
The percentage of working HAP tenants in receipt of working age income supports - including unemployment benefit and unemployment allowance - has been decreasing, to stand at 53% in 2022.
Landlords with 50 or more HAP properties owned close to one-fifth of all HAP properties in 2022.
Four in ten exits from HAP in 2022 were to social housing.
The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a form of social housing support provided by all local authorities. This was initially launched in 2014 and 2015 across select local authorities before being rolled out across the country. HAP can be provided to anyone who qualifies for social housing support and involves local authorities making a monthly payment to a private landlord on behalf of the HAP tenant, subject to terms and conditions, including rent limits. The HAP tenant pays a contribution based on household income, alike they would do in local authority owned properties.
This publication examines households before, during and after participation in the HAP Scheme. It utilises data from a variety of administrative data sources to provide information on income, employment, and household circumstances, as well as on HAP properties and landlords.
This report was developed in collaboration with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) and is 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.
This project involved the integration of datasets held by the HAP shared service in Limerick City and County Council with data from Revenue, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP), the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), the Residential Tenancy Board (RTB) and Local Authority housing lists. This allowed the CSO to produce aggregated analysis and outputs which were not previously available.
While we use increasingly varied sources of data available to inform citizens, the CSO will also ensure that we continue to protect and secure data and adhere to all relevant data protection legislation. With increased use of PPSNs and Eircodes or a centralised data structure such as the HAP shared service, further analysis could be undertaken on other aspects of social housing support such as local authority-owned housing and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS).
After a rapid growth of the HAP scheme in its early years there has been a decrease in the number of new households entering the scheme each year since 2017 with 6,590 entrants in 2022. The total number of households in the scheme rose every year up to 70,620 in 2021, with a small drop of 3.5% to 68,180 in 2022. Since the start of the HAP scheme there has been an increase every year in the number of households exiting HAP with 9,810 exits in 2022. See the Headline Table and Headline Figure below.
| Headline Table: Number of Households Starting, In and Exiting HAP 2014-20221 | |||
| Households in HAP | New Households | Exiting Households | |
| 2014 | 420 | 420 | 0 |
| 2015 | 5,770 | 5,360 | 210 |
| 2016 | 16,940 | 11,430 | 980 |
| 2017 | 32,810 | 17,000 | 2,110 |
| 2018 | 47,070 | 16,560 | 3,800 |
| 2019 | 57,620 | 14,540 | 5,530 |
| 2020 | 65,590 | 13,430 | 6,350 |
| 2021 | 70,620 | 11,130 | 9,260 |
| 2022 | 68,180 | 6,590 | 9,880 |
| 1Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 | |||
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (20 October 2023) released the publication Social Housing in Ireland 2022 - Analysis of Housing Assistance Payment Scheme, which is a follow up from a publication released in 2020.
Commenting on the release, Justin Anderson, Statistician in the Statistical System Co-ordination Unit, said: “This publication examines households before, during and after participation in the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme (HAP). It utilises data from a variety of administrative data sources to provide information on income, employment, and household circumstances, as well as on HAP properties and landlords. The local authority with the highest number of households in HAP in 2022 was Dublin City at 9,650. Dublin City also had the most new households enter the scheme in 2022 (950) and exit (1,070). Outside the highest number of households in HAP in 2022 (and entrants and exits) was in Cork County.
Entering HAP
There has been a fall in the number of new households entering the scheme since 2017, with 6,590 new entrants in 2022. More than half of tenants entering HAP in 2022 had been on the housing waiting list for less than a year prior to entry to the scheme. The housing waiting list also shows that more than 60% of tenants coming to HAP in 2022 were from private rental accommodation. An increasing proportion of households entering HAP have some employment in the year they start, with this at 65% in 2022, up from a low of 37% in 2015. More than half of HAP households entering the scheme in 2022 had a household gross earned income - from PAYE and self-employment - of less than €20,000 in this year.
During HAP
There has been a small drop in the total number of households in HAP in 2022 to 68,180, down 3.5% from 2021. There has been an increase in the median gross earned income of households over the years of the HAP scheme to €19,341 in 2022, with adjustments made for inflation. By Local Authority, this ranges from €12,070 in Donegal to €25,039 in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown.
Landlords with 50 or more HAP properties, which account for less than 1% of landlords, owned just under a fifth (19%) of HAP properties in this year. Around half of all properties that could be matched to Building Energy Rating (BER) assessments in 2022 had an A, B, or C rating. This is similar to all private rental tenancies with individual landlord owners.
After HAP
There has been an increasing number of exits from the HAP scheme over recent years, with 9,880 households leaving in 2022. Four in ten (40%) of those leaving in 2022 left to go to social housing. A further 25.1% left due to the tenant ending the tenancy. While the median gross household earned income of tenants leaving HAP was €17,692 in the year they exit, this rises to €21,478 for those who can be identified as working three years after their year of exit."