More ‘falling into the middle’

An urgent review of income limits for people qualifying for social housing was called for this week.

As it stands, a single person earning more than €30,000 a year in Cork county, or €35,000 in Cork city, does not qualify for social housing support. These limits have not been increased since 2011.

As a result, councillors say more and more people are “falling into the middle” where they earn too much to qualify for social housing support and too little to qualify for a mortgage.

At Monday’s meeting of Cork County Council, Fianna Fáil Cllr Seamus McGrath urged the council to write to the Minister for Housing to review and increase income limits.

“Obviously this would increase the amount of people qualifying for social housing, and I suspect that’s part of the reason why it hasn’t changed in ten years. But that’s not good enough. We can’t abandon people just to make the figures look good,” he said. “I’ve come across cases where people contemplate leaving work so they will qualify for social housing or reducing their working hours. That is how desperate people are.”

Cllr McGrath also highlighted that average weekly wages have increased significantly since 2011. “In 2016, just six years ago, the average weekly wage was €720. In 2021, it was €860. You can see the clear growth in wages over those number of years but unfortunately, the qualification criteria for social housing support has not changed at all.”

Cllr McGrath’s motion received strong backing from elected members, many of whom shared first-hand experience with constituents being denied social housing for earning just over the income limit.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Dierdre O’Brien said a client of hers had been on the waiting list for social housing for more than ten years but had been denied because she was €40 over the income limit.

“She’s a parent with one child and living with her parents and has been working since they day she finished education. She had worked some extra hours to help out during the pandemic. The only option she was told was to give up her job and go on social welfare,” said Cllr O’Brien.

Independent Cllr Ben Dalton O'Sullivan said it feels to him like people are almost being punished for working and are considering taking drastic measures in order to qualify for social housing.

He said: “I had a clinic there recently and a couple came into me and asked me straight out would they be better separating and the mother going on the one parent family payment to qualify for social housing. That’s what people are looking at and that isn’t right. That’s very sad.”