To endorse the findings of the review of the Discretionary Housing Payment Policy and to recommend to the Executive Committee that the revised Policy be adopted.

24.1           The report of the Revenues and Benefits Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 20-31, asked Members to endorse the findings of the review of the Discretionary Housing Payment Policy and to recommend to the Executive Committee that the revised Policy be adopted. 

24.2           At its meeting on 16 June 2015, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had agreed to carry out a review of the Discretionary Housing Payment Policy and a workshop had subsequently been held on 8 July 2015 to conduct the review.  The current policy for awarding discretionary housing payments needed to be reviewed in light of a number of changes, the main one being the impact of welfare reform and the Chancellor’s budget of 8 July 2015.  It was anticipated that there would be benefit cuts in the region of £12M and, in order to meet that challenge, the Government had committed a further £800M towards discretionary housing payments over the next 4-5 years.  Other factors contributing to the review included the work which had been carried out on financial inclusion and the completion of the transformation project within Revenues and Benefits.  The proposed changes would assist moving clients into cheaper alternative accommodation and reduce the need to make further applications for discretionary housing payments.  If the changes were accepted then it would greatly assist both the Benefits Team and the Housing Team in the administration of the discretionary housing payments and would help to reduce expenditure.  In addition, there would be further reductions in welfare benefit awards following the Chancellor’s announcement in the budget speech and it was important that the Council was in a position to react and assist housing benefit recipients who could be facing further reductions in benefit when they were experiencing difficult or challenging circumstances.  Members were advised that there would be resource implications; the Council received a grant of £86,795 from central Government so that it could make awards of discretionary housing payments and that amount would potentially increase.

24.3           Discretionary housing payments were made to those tenants who were on low incomes and they must be eligible for housing benefit in order to qualify.  Currently, the discretionary housing payment was being used to help tenants to keep their homes where their housing benefit did not meet their full rent.  Welfare budgets were being reduced and there was a need to encourage some tenants into cheaper alternative accommodation which would reduce the regular monthly discretionary housing payments and make people less reliant on those payments.  The impact of the benefit cap would be significant with the amount awarded being reduced from a maximum of £26,000 per year per claimant to £23,000 per year per claimant for residents of London and £20,000 per year per claimant for residents outside of London.  In order to assist the claimant, it was proposed that the Council be able to pay towards the rent deposit when moving into a new home and to assist with any reasonable removal costs.  When considering the application, it was necessary to take into account whether the property was affordable for the tenant; whether the tenant had a valid reason to move; and whether the deposit or removal cost was reasonable.  The Council currently had five housing benefit claimants whose benefits were being capped and it was likely that those numbers would increase.  It was important that the Council was in a position to offer assistance where there was a need and the housing benefit recipient was in temporary accommodation; an individual or family was fleeing domestic violence; for those with kinship care responsibilities; or an individual or family who could not move immediately for reasons of health, education or child protection.  Finally, there was a need to update the introduction of the Discretionary Housing Policy to set out that local authorities may also make payment awards towards other housing costs in order to better reflect the proposed changes to the policy.  It was also necessary to set out that the level of discretionary housing payment awarded must not exceed the eligible rent, taking into consideration the claimant’s overall financial and personal circumstances, in order to bring the Policy in line with the regulations.  All applications for discretionary housing payments were made in writing, and with supporting evidence, and consideration was given to background information about levels of income and expenditure.  Follow-up reviews and managerial checks were also carried out and the budget was subject to checking by the Council’s auditors.

24.4           Having considered the information provided, it was

RESOLVED          That the findings of the review of the Discretionary Housing Payment Policy be endorsed and that it be RECOMMENDED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE that the revised policy be ADOPTED.