Official Statistics

Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: analysis of mid-year returns from local authorities, April to September 2023

Published 14 December 2023

Applies to England and Wales

1. Main stories

Here are the main headlines about the use of Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) for the first half of the financial year ending March 2024 based on information received from 315 out of 318 local authorities in England and Wales:

• in the first half of the financial year ending March 2024, local authorities had spent 51% of their combined allocations for the year, compared to 56% at the same point in the previous financial year ending March 2023

• DHP spending varied between local authorities, with 25% of local authorities spending less than 40% of their allocation, 51% of local authorities spending between 40% to 60% of their allocation and 23% of local authorities spending over 60% of their allocation

• for local authorities that submitted awards data, the total number of DHP awards given out in the first half of the financial year ending March 2024 was 95,105

• 64% of DHP expenditure was related to welfare reforms, with the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) accounting for the greatest share of expenditure (25%)

• 29% of DHP expenditure was related to moving accommodation, while 12% was used for short-term rental costs while seeking employment

2. What you need to know

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Local authorities have broad discretion to spend in line with their local priorities. This includes deciding how much will be paid and for how long the claimant will receive the payment. A DHP can be awarded to cover a rent shortfall, a rent deposit, rent in advance, or other costs associated with moving.

The government provides funding to local authorities for DHPs. For the financial year ending March 2024, the government provided £100m of funding for DHPs. In addition to the government contribution, local authorities can top up their DHP funding so that their total DHP expenditure is a maximum of two and a half times their government contribution.

The level of DHP spending does not necessarily reflect the level of demand for DHPs as local authorities are encouraged to manage their DHP budget.

These statistics cover the period of April to September 2023 which is the first half of the financial year ending March 2024. The findings are based on returns from 315 out of 318 local authorities.

Further guidance on these statistics is provided in the “More information” section of this publication and in the background information and methodology document.

3. How much of their DHP funding did local authorities spend?   

In the first half of the financial year ending March 2024, the local authorities who submitted a return spent £50.2 million on DHPs which represents 51% of their combined government allocations. This is lower than at the same point the previous financial year ending March 2023 where local authorities had spent £54.6m which represented 56% of their combined allocations. Caution should be taken when comparing expenditure to the previous year as different local authorities responded in each year.

Welsh local authorities spent 54% of their combined allocations in the first half of the financial year ending March 2024, which is a higher proportion than that spent by reporting English local authorities (50%).

The local authorities that provided information on the number of awards made 95,105 awards to claimants in the first half of the financial year ending March 2024. For the local authorities that provided this information, the total expenditure on DHPs was £49.3m. While this suggests that the average DHP award was £518, this figure should be treated with caution, since there are a variety of different types of DHP awards (for example, a single DHP award to cover a deposit is likely to have a different value to a DHP award paid on a weekly or monthly basis).

Around 51% of local authorities spent between 40% and 60% of their allocation

Local authorities varied in the proportion of their DHP government allocation that they had spent during the first half of the financial year ending March 2024, with 25% of local authorities spending less than 40% of their allocation and 23% spending over 60%. Just over half (51%) of local authorities spent between 40% and 60% of their government allocations.

In the first half of the previous financial year, the pattern of spending showed local authorities spending a higher proportion of their allocated funding: 19% of local authorities who responded had spent less than 40% of their allocation, while 31% had spent over 60%.

Local authorities in the East Midlands spent the highest proportion of their combined allocations while local authorities in London spent the least

There was some variation by region, with local authorities in the East Midlands spending the greatest proportion of their combined allocations (59%) and local authorities in London spending the least (46%).

In the first half of the previous financial year ending March 2023, local authorities in Wales had spent the greatest proportion of their combined allocations (70%) with local authorities in the South West the least (49%).

4. How much was spent on each welfare reform   

64% of DHP expenditure was related to welfare reforms

64% of DHP expenditure was recorded as related to welfare reforms (for local authorities who provided the information), with the Removal of Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) recorded as being responsible for the largest proportion of DHP expenditure (25%), followed by Local Housing Allowance (LHA) reforms (23%), Benefit Cap (9%) and a combination of welfare reforms (7%). Just over a third (36%) of DHP expenditure was not reported as related to welfare reforms.

At the same point in the previous financial year, the same proportion (64%) of DHP expenditure was recorded as being related to welfare reforms.

5. What DHPs were awarded for

Over a quarter (29%) of expenditure was related to moving to alternative accommodation

Over a quarter (29%) of DHP expenditure was related to moving to alternative accommodation. 12% was to help with short-term rental costs while the claimant sought employment, while 3% went towards costs for disabled people in adapted accommodation.

Over half (56%) of DHP expenditure was given to help with ongoing rental costs for a reason unrelated to the above. This is the same percentage reported at the same point in the previous financial year ending March 2023.

6. More information

DHP government funding

DHP government funding for the financial year ending March 2024 is £100m. More information about funding levels over time can be found in table 1 in the data tables document accompanying this statistics release. 

Welfare reforms

Since the welfare reforms in 2011, the government has significantly increased its contribution to DHPs. This is so that local authorities can support those affected by the Benefit Cap, Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) and reforms to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA). The background information and methodology document provides more detail.

Data source

At the midpoint and end of each financial year, local authorities provide details of their DHP expenditure for financial accounting purposes, which they are legally required to do. 315 out of 318 local authorities provided this information in time for inclusion within these statistics. Of these 315 local authorities, 305 gave information about the number of DHP awards they gave out in the financial year.

In addition to financial information, local authorities are also asked, at the mid-point and end of each financial year, to provide additional monitoring information. Not all local authorities supply some or all of the monitoring information requested. Of the 315 local authorities that submitted a return, 297 provided a breakdown of expenditure by welfare reform and 289 provided a breakdown of expenditure by purpose of DHP. More information about both the financial information and monitoring information provided in returns can be found in the background information and methodology document.

Release schedule

These Official Statistics are released biannually. This current statistical release presents a summary of the mid-year returns that include both financial and monitoring information. They cover April to September 2023 which is the first half of the financial year ending March 2024.

The next release in this series will be based on end-of-year financial and monitoring returns covering April 2023 to March 2024. It will be published on 11 July 2024.

Status

These statistics have not been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority and have not been designated as National Statistics.

7. Where to find out more

These statistics are released as part of a series of Discretionary Housing Payment statistics.

Read information about Discretionary Housing Payments, including how to claim them.

8. Contact information

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

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

For media enquiries, please contact the DWP press office.

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Published: 14 December 2023

Next edition: 11 July 2024