DISCRETIONARY HOUSING PAYMENTS (DHPs) -
GUIDELINES
Introduction
The Council's general approach to promoting social wellbeing
seeks to ensure that poorer and more vulnerable claimants avoid
hardship and are provided with access to appropriate and effective
welfare and housing support. Through this, the
Council is committed to ensuring benefit entitlements are maximised
to those in need especially when this supports people with housing
needs. The Council will, within given resources,
seek to ensure that Discretionary Housing Payments are made
available to those persons who are genuinely entitled to receive
them and especially to alleviate short-term hardship.
Purpose
The purpose of this guidance is to specify how Crewe and
Nantwich Borough Council's Benefits Section will operate the scheme
and to indicate some of the factors that will be considered when
deciding if a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) can be
made. Each case will be treated strictly on its
merits and all customers will be treated equally and fairly when
the scheme is administered. The Benefits Section
is committed to working with the local voluntary sector, social
landlords and other interested parties in the Borough to maximise
entitlement to all available state benefits and this will be
reflected in the administration of the DHP schemes.
Background
From 2 July 2001, a new scheme was introduced which grants all
Local Authorities powers to pay Discretionary Housing Payments to
top up the Housing and Council Tax Benefits statutory
schemes. The legislation allowing DHPs was the
Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 and the
regulations governing them are the Discretionary Financial
Assistance Regulations 2001 (S1 001 / 1167).
There are two separate DHP schemes, one covering shortfalls
between rental liability and payment of Housing Benefit and one
covering shortfalls between Council Tax liability and entitlement
to Council Tax Benefit.
The main features of the schemes are that:-
- The schemes are purely discretionary a claimant does not have a
statutory right to a payment
- The amount that can be paid out by an Authority in any
financial year is cash-limited by the Secretary of State
- The administration of the scheme is for the Benefits Section to
determine
- DHP's are not a payment of Housing Benefit or Council Tax
Benefit. However, the minimum amount of HB/CTB
must be in payment in the benefit week that a DHP is awarded
for.
Statement of Objectives
The Benefits Section will consider making a payment of DHP to
claimants who meet the qualifying criteria as specified in this
guidance. The Benefits Section will treat all
applications on their individual merits, and will
seek to :-
- Help claimants through personal crises and difficult
events
- Help those who are trying to help themselves
- Support the vulnerable in the local community
- Encourage and sustain Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council
residents in employment
The Benefits Section considers that the DHP scheme should be
seen as a short time emergency fund. It is not
and should not be considered as a way around any current or future
entitlement restrictions set out within the Housing and Council Tax
Benefit legislation.
Decisions on DHP
An application for DHP will initially be considered by either
a Benefits Officer or a Senior Benefits Officer who will make a
recommendation for decision.
The Benefits Manager or if they are not available, the
Assistant Director (Revenues), will make the
decision.
Claiming a DHP
A claim for DHP may be made by any method, for example,
telephone, in writing, or electronically. However, to enable the
officer to have as many details as possible, we ask for our
DHP application form to be completed. Electronic claims will be
considered if proof of identity is supplied.
- The Benefits Section may request any reasonable evidence in
support of an application for a DHP. The
claimant will be asked to provide the evidence as soon as possible
to enable a prompt determination of the application.
- If the claimant is unable to or does not provide the required
evidence, the Benefits Section will still consider the application
and will take into account any other available evidence including
that held on the Housing Benefit file. Although
a failure to provide evidence will generally mean that the Benefits
Section are unable to award a DHP.
- The Benefits Section reserves the right to verify any
information or evidence provided by the claimant in appropriate
circumstances.
Period of Award
In all cases, the Benefits Section will decide the length of
time for which a DHP will be awarded on the basis of the evidence
supplied and the facts known. The start date of
an award will also be determined by the Benefits Section and again
will be based on the facts of the case.
Awarding a
DHP
In deciding whether to award a DHP, the Benefits Section will
taken into account:-
- The financial and medical circumstances of the claimant, their
partner and any dependants and any other occupants of the
claimant's home
- The income and expenditure of the claimant, their partner and
any dependants or other occupants of the claimant's home
- Any savings or capital that might be held by the claimant or
their family
- The level of debt that the family has and any arrangements they
have made to reduce the debts
- If there are special circumstances that apply to them or their
family
- Any steps taken by the claimant to reduce the rent eg.
Negotiations with their landlord
- The possible impact on the local authority of not making the
award e.g. the pressure on priority homeless accommodation
- Did the tenant have a Pre-Tenancy Determination that showed
that Housing Benefit would not meet the rent
before taking the tenancy
- Consider what links the tenant
has with that area
- Considers what steps the tenant has made to find cheaper
accommodation e.g. are they on the waiting list for other
accommodation providers
- The amount of DHP left in the budget
The Benefits Section will decide how much to award based on
all of the circumstances. This may be an amount
below the difference between the liability and the payment of
Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit. An
award of a DHP is seen as a short term solution to alleviate
poverty and hardship and to give the claimant an opportunity to
change their circumstance e.g. to find cheaper
accommodation. The award of a DHP as such does
not guarantee that a further award will be made at a later date
even if the claimant's circumstances have not changed.
Changes of Circumstances
The Benefits Section will need to revise an award of a DHP
where the claimant's circumstances have materially changed.
Method of Payment
The Benefits Section will decide the relevant person to pay
based upon the circumstances of each case. This
could include paying :-
- Their landlord (or an agent of the landlord); or
- Any third party to whom it might be most appropriate to make
payment
The Benefits Section will pay an award of DHP by the most
appropriate means available in each case. This
could include payment :-
- By crediting the claimant's Council Tax
Payment frequency will normally be made in line with how the
Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit are paid.
Notification
The Benefits Section will inform the claimant of the outcome
of their application within 14 days, or as soon as
practicable, of receiving a form and
evidence. Where the application is unsuccessful,
the Benefits Section will set out their reasons why this decision
was made and explain the right of review. Where
the application is successful, the Benefits Section will
advise:-
- The weekly amount of DHP awarded
- How, when and to whom the award will be paid
- The requirement to report a change in circumstances
The right to seek a review
DHP's are not payments of Housing or Council Tax Benefits and
are therefore not subject to the statutory appeals
mechanism. All Councils are expected to set up
an appropriate review process.
The Benefits Section will operate the following policy for
dealing with appeals about a refusal to award a DHP, a decision to
award a reduced amount of DHP, a decision not to backdate a DHP or
a decision that there has been an overpayment of a DHP.
- A claimant (or their appointee or agent) who disagrees with a
DHP decision may dispute the decision. A request
must be delivered in writing to the Benefits Section within one
calendar month of the written decision about the DHP being issued
to the claimant. Where appropriate, officers
from the Benefits Section will explain the DHP decision to the
claimant by telephone, at interview or in writing and will seek to
resolve the matter.
- Where agreement cannot be reached, the Benefits Manager or
Assistant Director (Revenues) will consider the case, depending on
who made the initial decision. The officer will
review all the evidence held and will make a decision within 14
days of referral or as soon as practicable.
- Where the Benefits Manager or the Assistant Director (Revenues)
makes the decision not to revise the original decision, he/she will
notify the claimant of their decision in writing, setting out the
reasons for their decision.
- Where the claimant is still not satisfied, they will be
entitled to a further review provided this is delivered in writing
within one month of the date on the decision letter This review
will be carried out by the Council's Housing Benefit Review
Board.
- The decision will be final and binding and may only be
challenged via the judicial review process or by complaint to the
Local Government Ombudsman.
- In exceptional circumstances the above time periods may be
extended. In deciding whether to extend, they
will take into account the financial difficulties in making an
award for a previous financial year.
Overpayments
The Benefits Service will seek to recover any DHP found to be
overpaid. The decision letter that notifies a
decision that there is an overpayment will also set out the right
of review. Local Authorities may not recover
DHPs from ongoing Housing Benefit or Council Tax benefit.
Publicity
The Benefits Service publicises the DHP scheme and will work
with all interested parties to raise awareness of the
scheme.
Fraud
The Benefits Section is committed to the fight against fraud
in all its forms. A claimant who tries to
fraudulently claim a DHP by falsely declaring their circumstances,
providing a false statement or evidence in support of their
application, may have committed an offence under the Theft Act
1968. Where the Benefits Section suspects that
such a fraud may have occurred, the matter will be investigated as
appropriate and this may lead to criminal proceedings being
instigated.
Financial Implications
The government sets the overall financial limit for
expenditure. We are allowed to spend up to 2.5 times our
allocation of the contribution but any expenditure in excess of the
contribution is met by the Borough's council tax
payers.
Each local authority is allocated a sum equivalent to the
mid-point between its DHP spend in the previous year and it's
government contribution for that year.
For example if a local authority had a contribution of £5,000
and spends £4000, it would be allocated £4,500. (Contribution
reduced by £500 because it underspent £1,000 in
the previous year)
Whereas, if it had spent £7,000, it would be allocated £6,000
(an additional £1,000 because it spent £2,000 more than the £5,000
contribution in the previous year)
In 2008/09 the government has set a maximum contribution of
£24,387for the cost of expenditure on DHPs for this
authority. This figure effectively sets the
amount of DHP that we can spend without incurring a cost to the
Borough's council tax payers.
In addition, if appropriate, we can also spend up to an
annually set limit (£60,968 in 2008/09) as determined by the
Government. The cost of any spend above
£24,387will fall on the Borough's Council Tax payers, however
expenditure above the Government's contribution level will usually
increase that contribution in subsequent years.
A shortfall below the Government's contribution will result in
lost grant. (see examples above) and the under spend has to be
repaid.
Each authority's contribution and upper spending limit is
revised annually by the Government.