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PEOPLE ON SOCIAL welfare will be able to earn up to €14,000 a year in rent without it impacting on their payments, the Minister for Social Protection has announced.
The new measure is part of efforts to remove barriers facing social welfare recipients who wish to rent out a room in their home without impacting their means-tested payments.
The scheme was announced today by Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys, who said that she had received Cabinet approval for the new measures.
The change means that anyone on any kind of social welfare will be able to rent out a room in their home for up to €14,000 a year.
Both the Fuel Allowance and Household Benefits package are set to be included in the new measures.
Humphreys also announced changes to the Living Alone Allowance, where people living alone could rent out a room in their home without having their allowance impacted.
This change will impact 209,000 people who currently receive the Living Alone Allowance, with Humphreys saying it is an important change due to the refugee crisis caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Humphreys said that these measures were worked on for months, but that the war in Ukraine “brought a new urgency to this situation”.
“These measures also reflect our overriding desire to ensure rooms that are available in homes across the country are freed up for potential tenants. Where there are barriers or anomalies in place, it is up to us to remove them,” said Humphreys in a statement.
It comes as Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien instructed local authorities to allow social housing tenants to accommodate Ukrainian refugees in their homes if they choose to do so.
It was also announced that any families who do take in Ukrainian refugees will be able to access a €400 a month payment, but that they must opt-in to receive it.
The payment itself was agreed at Cabinet on Tuesday, with it being a flat €400 regardless of how many refugees a household chooses to take in.
Earlier this week, The Journal reported that Irish universities would be offering student accommodation to Ukrainian refugees on a temporary basis, with 4,500 beds being secured from both public and private accommodation providers.
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Great little country isn’t it.
I work and pay tax and if decided to rent a room out I will have to pay tax on the rent I received. Again the government hits the normal worker that is struggling to pay a mortgage and bills and gets no help from the government just pat more tax
@Pól Ó Broin: only if it goes over €14,000. Going to rent a room now that you know it’s tax free?
@Pól Ó Broin: You are ALSO eligible to avail of the rent a room scheme and rent out a room in your home to earn up to €14k a year tax free. I trust this addresses your concerns.
@Sophie: it’s tax free only for the unemployed.if your working you pay tax on any and every income over your threshold
@Kevin Collins: when I looked into it last year I got onto revenue and was told I would have to pay tax on it as it was an income, so it would have worked out with tax and usc I would be paying close to 50% to revenue
@Pól Ó Broin: it’s 14k tax free for everyone
@Mark: then someone is not telling revenue about it
@Pól Ó Broin: wrong, if you rent out a property that is not your principal place off residence you are liable for tax on alll incom from same. However, if you rent a room or rooms out in a property where you are in full time residence, you are entitled to earn €14,000 tax free. This was introduced a number of years ago, initially I think allowing earnings of €10,000 per year, then increased to €12,000 and now €14,000. The only change now is that someone on welfare can now also do so
@Pól Ó Broin: perhaps the individual you spoke to wasn’t fully clued in. All the details are here https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/land-and-property/rent-a-room-relief/index.aspx Just don’t go over the 14k or the whole thing is taxed.
@Pól Ó Broin: you were misinformed;- https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/land-and-property/rent-a-room-relief/index.aspx
Unless you were looking to let the room to family? In which case you wouldn’t be eligible for tax free status
@Pól Ó Broin: it doesn’t apply to short term lets of less than 28 days so no good for AirBnB. But otherwise you can rent out a room in your home and earn up to 14k a year tax free. Either revenue have explained this badly to you or you misinterpreted what they said.
https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/land-and-property/rent-a-room-relief/qualifying-conditions.aspx
@Pól Ó Broin: anyone can rent a room out or two rooms. Once it doesn’t exceed €14,000 per year Pól
@Mark: only if you’re not already earning other money ie on a pension or social welfare.
@Kevin Collins: Despite it being tax free it still counted as income before this development and could therefore be used for means testing purposes. Now you can earn it and it counts for nought. Crazy system. Wish I could claim the dole and earn 14k a year…oh wait, I can now. Hmmmm decision time.
@Pól Ó Broin: you were informed wrong then last year, you could rent out up 12 thousand tax free last year for a room in your own home, not in a second home , brought it up to 14 thousand this year
@Pól Ó Broin: stop fuc kin feeling sorry for yourself and rent away tax free
@John Kavanagh: not a bit sorry for myself I worked hard for what I have.
Just annoyed at this
@Pól Ó Broin: Well that’s just not true
You’re telling lies, this can cause stress for people availing of the allowance
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/owning_a_home/home_owners/rent_a_room_scheme.html
@Declan Doherty: Read above I agreed that the person in revenue gave me wrong info
@Pól Ó Broin: you said you were told this by revenue last year. Its almost as if things can change in a year.
@Pól Ó Broin: making it up as you go along.
@Ashling Fenton: the article points out this has now changed
@Pól Ó Broin: it’s pretty common knowledge. People have been doing it for years with students. We both worked and took in students in the past for extra income. Don’t know who you were speaking with.
@Kevin Collins: important to remember once you let anyone over your threshold and accept money from them…they have rights ! So check out what rights they have in your home with RTB before you let anyone in.!
@Pól Ó Broin: Anybody can rent out a room in their homes tax free up to €14,000. Think it was originally introduced to relieve the student accommodation challenges in Dublin and Cork??
@Kevin Collins: Threshold my fellow, threshold!
So for someone who has had a council house and been on the dole all their adult life whilst they reared their family… Instead of moving these people on from a house that is now too big for their needs (and badly needed by others) they are going to be allowed earn 14k a year by subletting it. How much are they paying for rent of the house as a whole, surely it’s unfair for them to profit from their own sweet deal? Will the tennant’s they let to have to move out for a few weeks when the council send someone round to retrofit the house to make it A rated FOR FREE? Seems to me you only get income taxed in this lovely country of ours if you have the temerity to go out to work for it. Only mugs work – is that the message we are being given.
@John Kelly: “Only mugs work”. Yep, pretty much
@John Kelly: how does insurance work then I wonder?
@John Kelly: this is a fair point. There are thousands of local authority houses across the country where children have flown the roost and their parents are now left with extra rooms when there is a shortage of houses. It’s a tough fix. Currently people are being asked to volunteer to move to a smaller property in their local so as to free up the house for a bigger family but it’s not fair to force it on people. Can you imagine a pensioner couple being made move away from a place they’d lived in all their adult lives.
@Gerry McCaughey: Yes but this is a no brainer for anyone who is paying market rents in the current environment – no matter how friendly you are with the neighbours you will always live in a property that is big enough for your needs and no more.
Jesus you better off on the dole then working
@Darren Harte: if I went on the dole and rent out a room I would get just shy of 31k a year tax free plus all the benefits, fuel allowance, Xmas bonus, medical card. Unreal
@Pól Ó Broin: back to school allowance, childcare grant, breakfast club, discretionary payments from the community welfare officer. It is literally a no brainer. You would need a min 50k per annum to match the net.
Makes you wonder why nurses work. They will be the ones paying rent to social welfare landlords. A joke.
@Pól Ó Broin: You would also be renting a house cheaply if you were living in social housing. That’s gotta be worth another 10k a year, much more if your income was actually TAXED.
@John Kelly: not if you already bought a house and paying a mortgage on it if you worked most of your life.
@Pól Ó Broin: Agreed. I was trying to highlight what it might be worth to someone who 100% avails of all the welfare benefits available.
14000÷52 is 269euro a week. Thats more than the dole on its own . Add 203 euro tax free dole and medical card etc . Why would you bother working??
@johnbrady: you have just explained the root problem of most social welfare on offer. Why bother working? This article truly makes my blood boil to think that people can once again have money handed over on a silver platter without any reminder or connection to the taxpayers who pay for the HAP and the medical cards and weekly allowance and Christmas bonuses.
This could double someone’s income and not have any effect on the already free money coming in every week.
Why bother working.
What a total farce.
The housing crisis would be solved tomorrow if they reduced the income tax rate for the rental income but instead they allow people to stay on full social welfare payments and get 14000 tax free….why would you work if you are in that bracket and can do that its a no brainer. prob could even rent it to a friend or relative getting rent allowance and all cream the system. I think this is a very shortlived solution.
@Sarah Lou: The €14000 cap is the same as the Rent A Room Relief. Housing crisis would in it’s hoop be solved tomorrow if they reduced the income tax rate on rental income, the difference would just be pocketed. Sick and tired of hearing landlords giving out about having to pay income tax on their income earned from renting properties, it is income, it gets taxed, get over it.
@O’Mhorda Alec: Im actually a tenant not a landlord but thanks for coming back to me, its always lovely to see someone who knows it all….
@O’Mhorda Alec: I guess the same logic can be applied to tenants also then. It’s rent, get over it!
@darraghobrientd so a landlord in an RPZ cannot charge a market rent, but someone who gets everything for free including the house , it’s maintenance and doesn’t work for a living gets a tax free €14k.
In reality with taxes of over 50% and all the other costs a landlord would need a rent of €50k to match that deal. No wonder you are presiding over a rental market collapse.
I don’t fully understand how this would help people looking to rent a room. The household could charge upto €1,100 a month to rent a room. Who can afford to pay that all over the country?
This is for sure one of most ridiculous things from this government I saw so far.
At the current market, you can get €500 even for box-room, I guess.
I honestly have no clue about SW rates, other than what I read, but I’m sure this will at least double the disposable “income” for a lot of SW recipients.
I don’t mind the pensioner and other people getting a break and – temporarily – top-up.
But the report does say “anyone on any kind of social welfare” but then, that it will impact recipients of the “Living Alone Allowance”.
Does anyone know how it works?
If I live an 3-bed and squeeze my 2 teenage kids in one room, could I still avail of this top-up?
So, basically, this a massive green light to anyone on social welfare to nixer to the tune of €14 000 a year. Cash only nó doubt too.
@Liz O’Neill: so have you no room at the inn
@Christy Mc Carthy: Strange reply to my comment.
The rent a room scheme has been available for a long time to everyone, all the details are here:
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/owning_a_home/home_owners
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: And heretofore it was means tested was it not. Which meant that it counted as income for social welfare benefits.
Restoration of full entitlements to our Old Age Pensioners is long overdue.
No need to work at all now so 13k in hand outs 15k tax free.
This should be treated the opposite way rent a room you pay tax if your unemployed. If your not employed tax free.
Old saying…Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
Have they to join the prtb? What happens when the person renting the room is getting allowance to pay the person on the dole who is the primary person in the house or HAP type assistance
@Jim Casey: PRTB…. Gotta love them.
Now where did I put that Wendy house
Odd thing: If a landlord rents out a whole house to Tennant’s for 1,050 Euro a month for one-year, said land must pay tax of around 1000 Euro on the 12,600 Euro earned. But the rent-a-room scheme allows up to 14,000 tax free. Hmmm.
They really want people on social welfare, don’t they?
So the person renting the room is ALSO paying for the roof over the council tenants head through taxation :(
Meanwhile Private landlords pay 52%
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