# Rent Allowance



## options (2 Jun 2010)

Hello,

I am 19 and still live at home.

However, over the last few weeks (well, since Feb/March) my mother and I have not been getting on.

She is constantly putting me down, insulting me and saying the really nasty things to me. I had little self confidence and self esteem to begin with, but now it is gone and I am currently on the waiting list to see a counsellor to help me rebuild my self confidence and self esteem.

It's at the stage now, where, if I can avoid my mother, I will. 

I am on a FÀS course at the moment and it finished at the end of June.

The house belongs to my grandmother and we live with her.

My question is, would I qualify for rent allowance? I get €196 per week from FÀS, but with rent, bills, etc, I couldn't manage on my own without some help. When the FÀS course ends, if I can't get a job, I will only get €100 per week on JA. Where I live, the cheapest rent is around €700 per month, for a one-bed flat. I have looked at hosue-shares and there are very few and the house-share's I did find, are looking for people of specific ages, usually 25+.

I have no friends and no family near-by. College isn't an option (for reasons which I'd rather not go into on a public forum).

Is there any financial help I can get? 

Thank you.


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## tenchi-fan (2 Jun 2010)

€700 a month is the cheapest rent? Yea right! Not many people could afford to pay that even people who work for minimum wage. 

Just say you're a student and looking for digs.. families would be more than happy to accept a few quid under the rent a room scheme and in exchange you get a room with esb and maybe even broadband included. Also, it's summer time! All the students have gone home leaving plenty of vacant rooms!


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## options (2 Jun 2010)

tenchi-fan said:


> €700 a month is the cheapest rent? Yea right! Not many people could afford to pay that even people who work for minimum wage.
> 
> Just say you're a student and looking for digs.. families would be more than happy to accept a few quid under the rent a room scheme and in exchange you get a room with esb and maybe even broadband included. Also, it's summer time! All the students have gone home leaving plenty of vacant rooms!


I have looked and looked but €700 seems to be the cheapest that I can find. I am still looking and hoping to find somewhere cheaper.

I am not living in Dublin, I am based down the country and there are no college's/uni's where I live.


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## tenchi-fan (3 Jun 2010)

options said:


> I have looked and looked but €700 seems to be the cheapest that I can find. I am still looking and hoping to find somewhere cheaper.
> 
> I am not living in Dublin, I am based down the country and there are no college's/uni's where I live.



Put an ad in the paper for a house share or vacant room. There's bound to be something, even if it means moving somewhere a little further away from home. 

There's only 3 full weeks left in June and then you'll be on €100. But even if you got the full rate of dole and rent allowance for a single room, you still wouldn't be able to afford a place for €700 a month!


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## Kos19 (5 Jun 2010)

hi i was recently looking for a place and i found the best place too look for really cheap places is daft.ie its for all over ireland, and all prices.. they even advertise house share..
Good luck


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## gipimann (6 Jun 2010)

Check out the rules regarding rent supplement on www.welfare.ie

You would not qualify for Rent Supplement unless you've been renting for 6 months already or have been assessed by the local authority as having a housing need.

There are also maximum rent limits which apply, if rent is more than that Rent Supplement is not payable.  700 euro per month for a single person is quite a way over the limit for any county in Ireland.


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## niceoneted (7 Jun 2010)

for 700 down the country with no uni's or colleges you must be looking for a 3 bed house on it's own. 
Try for a house share, you should have to pay more than about 250/300 a month.


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