Discretionary Housing Payments statistics
Statistics on local authorities' use of Discretionary Housing Payment funds.
Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are monetary awards that can be made by Local Authorities to people experiencing financial difficulty with housing costs who qualify for Housing Benefit or the housing costs element of Universal Credit.
Local Authorities provide details of their use of DHP funds to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for these statistics twice a year. These are published for the first 6 months of the financial year and then for the whole of the financial year.
Correction to Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: April to September 2024
The original release of the April to September 2024 statistics (published on 12 December 2024) contained an error in which a small number of local authorities were assigned to the incorrect region impacting regional summaries and breakdowns by England and Wales. Headline figures and local authority level data were unaffected. A corrected version of the statistics was published on 10 July 2025.
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For non-media enquiries on these statistics email: dhp.returns@dwp.gov.uk
For media enquiries, please contact the DWP press office.
Latest release
Previous releases
Updates to this page
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering the financial year 2024 to 2025. Updated the note on the page about the publication of a revised version of the April to September 2024 statistics.
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Added a notice of correction around an error in which a small number of local authorities are assigned to the incorrect region in the release.
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Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: April to September 2024 document added to collection.
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering the financial year 2023 to 2024.
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering April to September 2023.
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering the financial year 2022 to 2023.
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering April to September 2022.
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering the financial year 2021 to 2022.
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering April to September 2021.
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Added a link to a new release of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering the financial year 2020 to 2021.
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Added a link to a new release of Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering April to September 2020.
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Added a link to a new release of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering the financial year 2019 to 2020.
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Added a link to a new release of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering April to September 2019.
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Added a link to a new release of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics, covering the financial year 2018 to 2019.
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Added Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: April to September 2018 statistics.
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Added 'Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: financial year 2017 to 2018' statistics.
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Added 'Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: April to September 2017'.
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Added 'Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: financial year 2016/17'.
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Added 'Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: April to September 2016' statistics.
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Added Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: financial year 2015/16 statistics
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Published 'Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: April to September 2015' statistics.
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Published 'Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: financial year 2014/15' statistics.
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First published.