To adopt the Discretionary Housing Payments Policy with effect from 1 April 2018.  

That the Discretionary Housing Payments Policy, as attached to the report at Appendix 1, be ADOPTED with effect from 1 April 2018.

99.1           The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 26-37, asked Members to approve, with effect from 1 April 2018, the Discretionary Housing Payments Policy which was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

99.2           Members were advised that the Council had the power to award discretionary housing payments to provide additional financial assistance towards housing costs where claimants were in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit where housing costs were included. The amended policy sought to update the existing arrangements to incorporate the Council’s responsibilities in respect of universal credit claimants, and to ensure consistent decisions were made, as well as to place greater emphasis on the actions that an applicant needed to follow to avoid long term reliance on discretionary housing payments. The amended policy was based on good practice guidance from the Department for Work and Pensions but also incorporated discussions with the Council’s housing services team and so made quite significant changes in terms of how claimants would interact with the Council. Page No. 34 set out a criteria for applicants which included a requirement for applications to be in writing on an approved form; for applicants to engage with housing services to establish whether any issues could be resolved with landlords through negotiation without needing to apply for discretionary housing payments, or to facilitate a move to more affordable accommodation; to prove financial hardship or exceptional personal circumstances; to demonstrate the steps taken to achieve financial independence; and to demonstrate meaningful attempts to move to more suitable accommodation if financial hardship was as a result of the current property being unsuitable for the household’s housing need.

99.3           Members expressed the view that the policy before the Committee was an excellent piece of work. It was certainly the case that there were many in the Borough that could only attain poorly paid jobs and this would offer them some support. A Member questioned how those ‘harder to reach’ residents would be helped by the policy. In response, the Revenues and Benefits Manager explained that there were some people that the Council found it hard to engage with but most people who were entitled to discretionary housing payments were referred by partner organisations which was helpful. It may be possible to consider the communications around the policy to try and reach more residents and it could also be considered as part of the financial inclusion partnership work. In terms of sharing data across partner organisations, this was something the Council tried to do to ensure it was not missing any vulnerable people; however, this would be made more difficult with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation so would need to be considered carefully. As the impact of universal credit was as yet unknown, a case was due to be submitted to the government for more funding for discretionary housing payments - it was not known at this stage how successful that would be.

99.4           Accordingly, it was