The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is currently available in all 31 local authority areas and to homeless households in the Dublin local authorities under the Homeless HAP pilot.

The HAP scheme is provided under Part 4 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014. Once transferred from Rent Supplement to HAP, households are in receipt of a much more secure form of state support and crucially the linkage between their employment status and their housing need is broken. They can work full-time.