Benefits and support The benefits service: our data

Discretionary Housing Payments, welfare reform, and caseload information

Discretionary housing payments

We receive an annual grant from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to fund Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) to top up Housing Benefit where appropriate. Any of the grant not spent is returned to DWP. The Council can pay more than the amount funded by DWP out of the General Fund.

2023/24
Total grant: £1,396,135. The figures shown below for each quarter are cumulative.              

2022/23
To end of

April to June 2023

July to September 2023 October to December 2023 January to March 2024
Amount spent £1,034,158 £1,563,963 £2,138,651 £

 

The number of Discretionary Housing Payments paid and refused in 2023/24

To end of Paid Refused Total dealt with
April - June  570 570 1,140
July - September  518 463 981
October - December  596 471 1,067
January - Feruary      

Discretionary Housing Payment entitlement by ward and tenure

Discretionary Housing Payments - expenditure in previous years

Look at how Discretionary Housing Payments have been used nationally on GOV.UK

Welfare reform

Under-occupation

Housing Benefit for council tenants and housing association tenants of working age is reduced if they are considered to have more bedrooms than they need. This is widely known as 'the bedroom tax' though it is a reduction of benefit rather than a tax we issue bills for. 

The dwindling caseload is partly the result of claimants moving from Housing Benefit (HB) to Universal Credit (UC). The UC housing element is reduced in the same way as for HB but numbers affected are unknown. 

 
  April to June  July to September  October to December  January to March 
Reduction for one spare bedroom  2,491 2,406 2,276  
Reduction for two or more spare beds  686 653 613  
All cases affected 3,177 3,059 2,889  
Average reduction £16.34 £16.28 £16.30  
Cases with DHP 342 322 319  
Cases needing a one bedroom property 1,883 1,814 1,746  
Cases needing a two bedroom property 1,394 1,245 1,143  

Under-occupied cases getting Discretionary Housing Payment split by landlord

Under-occupied cases getting Discretionary Housing Payment split by ward

Under-occupation data for earlier years

Look at the national under-occupation statistics on GOV.UK

Benefit cap

Since November 2016 the total amount of benefit that most working-age people can get is £384.62 a week (£257.69 for single people without children).

Numbers of cases are now dwindling as claimants move from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit, with DWP applying the benefit cap instead. UC figures are rounded to nearest 10 and published several months after the end of the quarter.

 
  April to June  July to September  October to December  January to March 
Cases capped 61 85 56  
Average weekly reduction £67.05 £53.88 £49.90  
Number of cases with DHP 14 11 8  

Housing Benefit claimants by ward and housing sector whose benefit is capped

Benefit cap data for earlier years

Benefit Cap - national statistics broken down by local authority

Caseload

Information about the benefits service caseload broken down into each type of case per quarter

  April to June  July to September  October to December  January to March 
Live case load 53,409 53,270 53,114  
Cases with housing benefit 30,441 29,995 29,389  
Cases with council tax support 47,799 47,701 47,501  
Council tenant 7,451 7,426 7,396  
Housing association tenants 18,596 18,344 17,951  
Private tenants 4,394 4,225 4,042  
Council tax support only cases 22,968 23,295 23,725  

Quarterly numbers of working-age Council Tax Support claimants by ward and band

Quarterly numbers of non-working-age Council Tax Support claimants by ward and band

Caseload data for earlier years

Look at national caseload statistics on GOV.UK

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