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Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link The Economic Illiteracy of UK Energy Policy is a Sight to Behold Thu Jul 10, 2025 07:00 | Tilak Doshi
UK energy policy is run by economic illiterates. That's the only conclusion Dr Tilak Doshi can come to after Ed Miliband's deputy said there is "no material difference" between importing oil and drilling for it ourselves.
The post The Economic Illiteracy of UK Energy Policy is a Sight to Behold appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Thu Jul 10, 2025 00:36 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Benefits Pay ?2,500 More Than Full Time Job, Analysis Shows Wed Jul 09, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
A life on sickness benefits will soon pay ?2,500 more a year than a full-time minimum wage job, according to analysis from the Centre for Social Justice. No wonder the country is going bankrupt.
The post Benefits Pay ?2,500 More Than Full Time Job, Analysis Shows appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why I Might Vote Tory for the First Time Wed Jul 09, 2025 17:24 | Nick Dixon
With Nigel Farage insisting he's relaxed about the UK's demographic shift and white British heading to minority status, Nick Dixon is seriously considering voting Tory for the first time. Hear him out, he pleads.
The post Why I Might Vote Tory for the First Time appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Net Zero to Cost Taxpayers ?800 Billion, Warns OBR Wed Jul 09, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
Britain?s move to a Net Zero economy will cost taxpayers more than ?800 billion over the next two decades, the UK?s fiscal watchdog has said. But even this is based on implausibly generous assumptions, say critics.
The post Net Zero to Cost Taxpayers ?800 Billion, Warns OBR appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Rent Allowance-More Stealth Cuts?

category national | public consultation / irish social forum | other press author Sunday September 20, 2009 11:08author by Greg T - None (Independent left) Report this post to the editors

Highlighting recent changes to the rent supplement scheme as well as other disturbing developments.

As if June's cut wasn't enough, ( see: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94053 ) waiting period of up to several months for rent allowance assessment to be completed are going to result from recent changes to the rent supplement scheme . This development may make things next to impossible for any newly unemployed without significant savings, in the meantime more and more people are undoubtedly going to become homeless.
http://www.corkindependent.com/local-news/local-news/co...nces/
(It's nice to see a Labour TD taking action on this issue). As if that isn't worrying enough, just been told by someone I know (coincidentally also in County Cork), that new Rent Allowance claims are not being processed at all in her area. This person was basically informed (informally) that her claim was a waste of time and that due to staff shortages new applications will not get seen to. Sounds suspiciously like yet another stealth on the sly cut. Meanwhile the NAMA plans to bailout the rich continue, gombeen politics as usual. If anyone else knows similar stories they need to be highlighted immediately. Affected people need to kick up a fuss or they will be (conveniently) forgotten.

Related Link: http://www.corkindependent.com/local-news/local-news/concern-about-rent-allowances/
author by shoegirlpublication date Mon Sep 21, 2009 17:35author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Isn't the whole point of rent allowance so that people in EXISTING rented accomodation are subsidised, not so that people who are currently receiving a social welfare payment can choose to change their existing accomodation at a whim?

That said, the changes are harsh on anybody who otherwise would be facing the scenario of having no roof under their head - for example if their landlord is selling up or if the family home is no longer a safe place for them.

Forcing low income households into the market sector should never have been a solution in the first place - accomodation should have been made available via social housing, not via giving guaranteed profits to market landlords at obscene overpriced rates and pushing up demand artificially for private rented property through engineering artificial shortages in social housing through non-provision. (But then spending billions on private sector rents instead? Doesn't even make financial sense if you take into account that the cost of housing rent subsidised households over the last 10 years has probably already far exceeded the cost of actually providing them with permanent council or housing association homes?)

The current policy of locking in this form of "non-provision" by long term leasing from private landlords is doing nothing more than subsidizing the worst kind of profiteering landlords.

 
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