Official Statistics

Background information and methodology: use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics

Published 9 July 2026

Applies to England and Wales

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.

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

Since the financial year ending March 2021, LAs have been asked to 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 financial year ending March 2026.

Read previous releases of the DHP statistical series.

2. Methodology

The financial information details how much of the government contribution towards DHPs LAs have spent for 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. Funding has been consistent for local authorities since financial year ending 2023.

By 27 May 2026, 300 out of 318 unitary and lower tier LAs had submitted a return approved by the LA’s Responsible Finance Officer. All of these returns included an estimate of DHP expenditure. The Department is contacting the remaining LAs in order to obtain information about expenditure.

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

Not all LAs provide monitoring information, as it is voluntary, and some provide incomplete information. This means that, for example, some LAs may provide information of expenditure split by welfare reform type but not by the purpose of the DHP award.

Of the 300 LAs that submitted returns by our deadline of 27 May 2026, 285 provided a breakdown of expenditure by welfare reform and purpose of DHP award.

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 LA.

That said, the statistics rely on LAs providing accurate returns. Although we believe they give an accurate overall picture, it is likely that smaller errors remain even after the quality checks above. 

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

3. Trustworthiness and quality

As described above, this publication is based on information provided by LAs. 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 27 May 2026 were accepted and included in the analysis. No results were altered without the explicit consent of the submitting LA.

4. 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 households (pensioner households are exempt). A deduction is applied to the level of housing support where households are living in a property that is considered to have more bedrooms than the household needs under the current policy.

Benefit Cap

Rolled out from April 2013, the Benefit Cap places 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 (LHA) reforms

People who rent from a private landlord and receive Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit generally have their claim assessed under the LHA rules. These determine the maximum amount payable in a given area depending on the characteristics of the household. 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:

Read previous releases of this statistical series.

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: Nathan Kelly Email: Nathan.Kelly@dwp.gov.uk

Author: Noah Whiteman
Email: noah.whiteman@dwp.gov.uk