Discretionary Housing Payments: A response from Cllr Joe Goldberg

Earlier this month, a discussion around this press release from Lynne Featherstone regarding Discretionary Housing Payments was begun.

I asked Cllr Joe Goldberg, the Cabinet Minister for Finance via Twitter if the allegations that Haringey Council had failed to support its most vulnerable residents was true.

Cllr Goldberg has now responded and given me permission to publish his reply to inquiry:

Firstly I think it is important to confirm that the questions in the House of Commons, and the figures used by Lynne and her Liberal colleagues relate to a period in some cases up to 8 years ago, and all certainly relate to a pre-welfare reform period.

In an ideal world I think its fair to say you would never use DHP, because people are being provided with the means to pay their rent, and live a reasonably decent standard of living. As such, and I know that you are personally aware of this, but since you intend to publish my response, it is important to be clear about eligibility.

The DHP eligibility criteria is governed by the Financial Assistance Regulations 2001 and allows anyone who is entitled to either Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit to apply to make-up a shortfall in their rent.  The resident simply needs to demonstrate that they  “require financial assistance” and must submit reasons and supporting evidence as to why they have a need for help.  Officers would review this evidence and if the need is deemed exceptional then DHP is granted.  DHP’s are usually granted with conditions and are always for a fixed period of no more than 12 months.  Conditions will include the need for the resident to make provision for the future such as looking for work / more affordable accommodation.

Although promotional work has been undertaken with Housing Associations and Landlords there has not been a continuing campaign to promote awareness wider than this, because we and other authorities alike would want to avoid a situation where we ran out of the resources to provide for people whom may approach us later in the municipal year.

The level of underspend in the years in question is due to the low number of applications and that DHP is only provided where it is merited in line with DWP best practice.  The level of underspend in 2012/13 was compounded by an increase in the fund and a carry forward of underspends from 2011/12. Furthermore, the level of the DHP fund is reduced as the Council recovers any overpaid DHP.  This is not the case in most Council’s where overpayments are not recovered.  

We are now entering a post-benefit cap, post-abolition of council tax benefit and post-bedroom tax era, which we anticipate to severely worsen individual families positions. To give you an idea of the situation we are facing these are the current level of shortfalls that we are seeing families experience from the benefit cap alone as of last week.

Size of weekly HB reduction	Number of households approved for ‘capping’ as at 12th of July 2013
Between £300 and £399 a week	27
Between £200 and £299 a week	58
Between £100 and £199 a week	177
Between £50 and  £99 a week	220
Between £30 and £49 a week	97
Between £10 and £29 a week	101
Less than £10 a week	55
TOTAL	735

While we have been given a special one-off extra sum of DHP for this year, we still expect to be Full Year equivalent several millions short of the money to make up the shortfall in people’s rent, and next year we will see DHP more than halved to approx. £700K. As you will see the situation is quite different, we have therefore taken the decision to attempt to pro-actively engage with families under such threat and make it known to these individuals about the sums available to them.

I hope I don’t need to make clear how despicable I find these policies that are being implemented but I hope this provides assurance that we are doing what we can to ensure we are supporting these families as best we can.

Cllr Joe Goldberg, Cabinet Member for Finance and Carbon Reduction, London Borough of Haringey, Seven Sisters Ward Councillor

To find out more about discretionary housing payments and if you qualify see this page on the Haringey Council website