Official Statistics

Background information and methodology: use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics

Published 14 December 2023

Applies to England and Wales

1. Introduction

These Official Statistics are published biannually and give a summary of local authorities’ 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.

For accounting purposes, local authorities are legally required to provide details of their DHP expenditure at the midpoint and end of the financial year. Local authorities are also asked for voluntary ‘monitoring’ information to provide further details about their use of DHP funding. 

In previous years, local authorities provided financial information and monitoring information on separate returns. Since the financial year ending March 2021, local authorities complete a combined return, which asks for both the legally required financial information and the voluntary monitoring information on the same return.  This statistical release presents a summary of these returns. It covers the first half of the financial year ending March 2024.

Read previous releases of this statistical series.

2. Methodology

The financial information details how much of the government contribution towards DHPs local authorities have spent for the first half of the financial year (including any additional expenditure above the government contribution). The analysis of this data focuses on comparing total spend against central government allocations.

Any comparison of expenditure across years should be treated with caution as the government contribution to DHPs differs year to year.

By 22 November 2023, 315 out of 318 local authorities had submitted a return approved by the local authorities’ Responsible Finance Officer. All of these returns included an estimate of DHP expenditure. The Department is contacting the remaining local authorities in order to obtain information about expenditure.

These statistics are also based on monitoring information, which gives further details of local authorities’ expenditure on DHPs by splitting the spend by the purpose for which the DHP was awarded and the welfare reform (if any) with which it was associated.

Because the monitoring information is voluntary, not all local authorities provide it, and some local authorities do not supply all the information requested. This means that some local authorities may provide a split by welfare reform, but not by the purpose of the DHP.

Of the 315 local authorities that submitted returns by 22 November 2023, 297 provided a breakdown of expenditure by welfare reform whilst 289 provided a breakdown of expenditure by the purpose of the DHP.

When we gather returns, we perform various checks to assess whether they are accurate. For example, we check against the previous year’s figures. We also 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.

When local authorities provide data on the number of awards, there may be some differences between local authorities in the way awards are counted. For example, if the amount of a DHP award changed, some local authorities may count this as a new DHP award, whereas some may count it as the same award. We do query awards figures with local authorities that are inconsistent with other data they provide, but caution should be taken when comparing the number of awards reported by individual local authorities.

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 local authorities and any resubmissions of corrected returns received by 22 November 2023 were accepted and included in the analysis. No results were altered without the explicit consent of the submitting local authority.

Definitions

Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS)

In April 2013 the RSRS 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.

Benefit Cap

Rolled out from April 2013, the Benefit Cap is a limit on the total amount of benefit that most working age households can receive. Since April 2023, the maximum amount couples and households with children can receive is £22,020 a year (£25,323 in Greater London) and £14,753 a year (£16,967 in Greater London) for single person households.

Local Housing Allowance 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

This document, the statistics release and supporting tables can be found here:  

Information on Official Statistics is available on the UK Statistics Authority website.

Read information about statistics at DWP.

6. Contact information

For media enquiries please contact the DWP press office.

Responsible Analyst: Stephanie De Miranda
Email: stephanie.demiranda@dwp.gov.uk

Author: Sophie Reid
Email: sophie.reid2@dwp.gov.uk