Discretionary Housing Payments in Scotland: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
This publication provides information on Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) in Scotland over the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
As of April 2017, full responsibility for Discretionary Housing payments (DHPs) has been transferred to the Scottish Government. The Department for Work and Pensions no longer provides any funding. Scottish Government allocates funding for DHPs to each local authority, and local authorities are also free to provide additional funding from their own resources.
Discretionary Housing Payments are made to people who for example:
- claim Housing Benefit but it doesn’t cover all their rent
- claim Universal Credit but they can’t afford their housing costs
- need help with removal costs
- need help with a rent deposit or rent in advance
Local Authority Delivery
Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are administered in Scotland by the 32 Scottish local authorities.
The Scottish Government provides full funding for the mitigation of the bedroom tax (Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy), and the benefit cap, and expects that anyone affected by these deductions will receive a DHP.
DHPs can also be used where a household’s local housing allownce rate is insufficient.
For reasons other than bedroom tax and benefit cap, DHPs are awarded if a local authority considers that a housing benefit or universal credit (which includes an element for housing) claimant requires further financial assistance towards housing costs. Local authorities have discretion to decide how financial hardship is assessed, the amount that is to be paid (within certain limits) and how long the payments are to be made for.
Further information on how DHPs are administered can be found in the Scottish DHP guidance manual: Scottish Discretionary Housing Payment: guidance manual - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Funding Methodology
The Scottish Government fully funds the mitigation of the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS), also known as the “bedroom tax”, and, since January 2023, the Benefit Cap. The budget for these mitigations is based on the forecasted cost of reimbursing local authorities for mitigating tenants’ losses to RSRS, and the maximum cost of the Benefit Cap to claimants during 2023-24.
The local authority allocations for “Other DHPs”: “Core” and “Local Housing Allowance” are based on the previous year’s Housing Benefit expenditure and/or caseload in relation to each component, adjusted to account for Universal Credit.
The total amount allocated to “Other DHPs” at the start of 2023-24 was £7.9 million. The estimated costs for “Bedroom Tax Mitigation” and “Benefit Cap Mitigation” is in addition to this allocation. At the point at which allocations were made at the beginning of 2023-24 the estimate for the full cost of Bedroom Tax Mitigation was £69.7 million, and the estimate for Benefit Cap Mitigation was £6.2 million. The estimated end year total spend on DHPs used in this document, for instance in Charts 1 and 2, is £83.7 million.
The agreed funding methodology is designed to ensure that funds to support RSRS and benefit cap mitigation are effectively allocated with flexibility to manage any variance in costs against estimates. The management information collected by the Scottish Government will be used to calculate the Tranche 2 payments for the mitigation of the bedroom tax and of the benefit cap.
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