Background information and methodology: use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics
Published 17 December 2020
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2020
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-april-to-september-2020/background-information-and-methodology-use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-statistics
1. Introduction
These Official Statistics are published biannually and give a summary of Local Authority (LA) expenditure on Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs). These statistics have not been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority, and have not been designated as National Statistics.
At the end of each financial year, the department requires that LAs provide details of their DHP expenditure for financial accounting purposes. These details are provided on a “financial return”, which LAs are legally required to provide.
Additionally, LAs are asked twice a year to provide further details about their use of DHP funding. These details are provided on “monitoring returns”, which are voluntary.
This statistical release, published halfway through the financial year, presents a summary of the monitoring returns. It covers the first half of the financial year 2020 to 2021, from April to September 2020.
Read previous releases of DHP statistics.
2. Methodology
These statistics are based on monitoring returns from Local Authorities. These contain details of Local Authority expenditure on DHPs, split by the purpose for which the DHP was awarded and the welfare reform (if any) with which it was associated. They also contain information on the numbers of awards.
Because the returns are voluntary, not all LAs complete them and not all of them supply all the information requested. This means that some LAs provide total expenditure figures, but do not break these down by the purpose for which the DHP was awarded.
When we receive these returns, we perform various checks to assess whether they are accurate. For example, we check against the previous year’s figures and check any results that look too big or too small. We then query any results that appear to be inaccurate with the Local Authority.
That said, the statistics rely on the accuracy of the returns. Although we believe they give an accurate overall picture, it is likely that smaller errors remain even after the quality checks above.
The figures presented in this release are based on mid-year monitoring returns covering April 2020 to September 2020 from 264 English and Welsh LAs (out of 336 at the time of publication) who responded by 2nd November 2020. This represents 79 per cent of all LAs in England and Wales, with 79% of English LAs and 77% of Welsh LAs providing a return.
All LAs that provided a return provided a breakdown of expenditure by the relevant welfare reform. 243 of the 264 LAs who provided a return also provided a breakdown by the purpose of the DHP.
3. Trustworthiness and Quality
As described above, this publication is based on information provided by Local Authorities. While some quality checks are conducted, the results are not verified in detail.
Any discrepancies were queried with LAs and any resubmissions of corrected returns received by 17 November 2020 were accepted and included in the analysis. No results were altered without the explicit consent of the submitting local authority.
4. Definitions
4.1. Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS)
In April 2013 the removal of the spare room subsidy policy came into effect. This policy applies to working age social rented sector Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claimants (pensioner households are exempt). Where claimants are deemed to occupy more bedrooms than they need, as defined by the social sector size criteria, they are subject to a weekly reduction in the eligible rent used to assess their housing benefit.
4.2. Benefit Cap
Rolled out from April 2013 and fully implemented from September 2013, the benefit cap is a limit on the total amount of benefit that most working age households can receive. Since November 2016 the maximum amount couples and households with children can receive is £20,000 a year (£23,000 in Greater London) and £13,400 a year (£15,410 in Greater London) for single person households.
4.3. LHA Reforms
Tenants who rent from a private landlord and receive housing benefit or Universal Credit Housing Allowance generally have their claim assessed under the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rules. These determine the maximum amount payable in a given area depending on the household characteristics of the claimant. Reforms to the LHA system since April 2011 have generally restricted the eligible rent that can be met through Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.
5. Useful links
Read this document, the statistics release and supporting data tables.
Information on Official Statistics is available on the UK Statistics Authority website.
Read information about statistics at DWP.
6. Contact information
Media enquiries, telephone: 0203 267 5144
Responsible Analyst: Graham Walmsley
Email: graham.walmsley1@dwp.gov.uk
Author: Isaac Holliday
Email: isaac.holliday@dwp.gov.uk