Discretionary Housing Payments in Scotland: 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023
This publication provides information on Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) in Scotland over the six-month period from 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023.
The Scottish Government’s total published budget for DHPs in 2023-24 was £83.7 million. This includes three funding streams for DHPs: ‘Bedroom Tax’ mitigation (£69.7 million), benefit cap mitigation (£6.2 million) and “Other DHPs” (£7.9 million). The Bedroom Tax is also known as the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS). The distribution of funding has been agreed by local authority leaders (as represented by CoSLA) and the Scottish Government (Table 1 and figure below) as follows:
- to date £68.6 million of funding has been provided.
- tranche 1 funding included 80% of the estimated cost of “Bedroom Tax mitigation (£55.7 million), 80% of the estimated cost of benefit cap mitigation (£4.9 million) and 100% of the “Other DHPs” funding for 2023-24 (£7.9 million).
- the remaining 20% of the estimated cost of “Bedroom Tax Mitigation” (£13.9 million) and benefit cap mitigation (£1.2 million) has been held back to reimburse local authorities for spending over and above tranche 1.
For more information about the funding methodology, see the Background Note.
|
|
Bedroom Tax Mitigation |
Benefit Cap Mitigation |
Other DHPs |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total estimated funding for 2023-24 |
£69.7 m |
£6.2 m |
£7.9 m |
£83.7 m |
|
Initial tranche 1 funding (Local Government Finance Order) |
£55.7 m
(80% of estimated total required) |
£4.9 m
(80% of estimated total required) |
£7.9 m |
£68.6 m |
|
Tranche 2 funding |
£13.9 m
(20% of estimated total required) |
£1.2 m
(20% of estimated total required) |
n/a |
£15.1 m |
An “Other DHP” underspend of £3.9 million was carried forward from 2022-23 and redistributed to local authorities for 2023-24.
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