Agenda item

To consider the progress made against the implementation of the recommendations identified in the audit of the Council’s Discretionary Housing Payment Policy. 

20.1          The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 102-109, provided an update on the progress made on implementing audit recommendations following a review of Discretionary Housing Payments and an unsatisfactory audit opinion.

20.2          The Committee was advised that Discretionary Housing Payments were awarded when a local authority considered that a claimant required further financial assistance towards housing costs and was entitled to either Housing Benefit or Universal Credit towards rental liability. The payments scheme was funded by the government and the Council could top up the funding up to an additional 150% if it so wished. The allocation for the 2020/21 financial year was £142,189. In February 2020, an audit had been undertaken by the Council’s Internal Audit Team at the request of the Revenues and Benefits Manager to ensure that awards were being made consistently and only to those demonstrating a real need for financial support. The audit had resulted in an unsatisfactory audit opinion and that report had been presented to the Committee in July 2020. To reassure Members, it was agreed that a report would be brought back to the next meeting with an update on progress against the recommendations.

20.3          The Revenues and Benefits Manager advised that, unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic had had a significant impact on the Revenues and Benefits team which meant not as much progress had been made on implementation of the recommendations as would have been the case in normal times. The COVID-19 pandemic had also meant that the team had to work around some of the recommendations due to being unable to see residents face to face or accept paper documents in support of applications. In addition, further work needed to be undertaken in case management between benefits and housing to ensure residents were being moved to more suitable accommodation with reduced reliance on Discretionary Housing Payments as these were meant to provide temporary support. The Revenues and Benefits work plan for quarter 2 included these tasks.

20.4          Attention was drawn to Paragraph 2.0 of the report which set out the audit recommendations and the progress made to date against each. In terms of recommendation 1, a checklist had been developed to support the collection and assessment of Discretionary Housing Payment information and had been used to assess every application; this had meant that payments were not being made in as many circumstances as previously. In respect of recommendation 2, the policy had been reviewed and non-essential items of expenditure such as alcohol, cigarettes, newspapers and magazines were no longer taken into consideration when assessing an application. Recommendation 3 was that consideration should be given to introducing performance reporting in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management, however, this had been delayed due to the pandemic but it was intended that a meeting would be set up with the Lead Member in October to agree the performance methodology moving forward. Expenditure against the budget was routinely monitored in line with good practice and, if profiled in twelfths, expenditure was significantly less than the previous year which suggested the recommendations were impacting on the level of award. Referring to recommendation 4, the Revenues and Benefits Manager indicated that the independent verification checks on a sample of applications, including a recalculation of the income and expenditure spreadsheet used by the assessors, had also been delayed to some extent by the pandemic. However, the work had now commenced and had been included in the Revenues and Benefits work plan for quarter 2.

20.5          In response to a query regarding non-essential items of expenditure, the Revenues and Benefits Manager explained that, essentially, the calculation was around determining whether or not there was a shortfall so, by including things which were discretionary, awards were being made and people had been benefiting from their lifestyle choices.

20.6          Accordingly, it was

                 RESOLVED           That the Discretionary Housing Payments Audit Progress                                        Report be NOTED.