Families with working adult children living at home face rent increases

Eva Osborne

Rent increases are on the way for families with working adult children who live at home in local authority housing.

South Dublin County Council is the latest to signal its intention to charge more for "subsidiary earners" - these are people in a household who earn over a certain salary range.

It applies to those earning more than the social housing income threshold of between €40,000 and €47,000 a year.

The council plan to raise the amount of extra rent charged for these people with around 21 thousand tenancies in South Dublin affected.

The Irish Independent reports some homeowners in SDCC are already paying €135 more for rent than the national average.

The move has been criticised by some local representatives, who say parents have no control over their adult children’s income, the paper also reported.

Figures from Eurostat suggest the average age of a young person moving out of their parents’ home in Ireland is almost 27 years old.

With young people now moving out of the family home later in life, councils want them to contribute more to the rent, if they are earning.