Agenda item

To consider the progress made against implementation of the audit recommendations in relation to Discretionary Housing Payments. 

38.1          The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 83-87, provided Members with an update on the progress made against implementation of the audit recommendations in relation to Discretionary Housing Payments.  Members were asked to consider the report.

38.2          The Revenues and Benefits Manager advised that Discretionary Housing Payments provided financial help with housing costs for residents in receipt of housing benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit.  She had requested that the Internal Audit team look at Discretionary Housing Payments to ensure they were being awarded consistently and only to those who had demonstrated a real need.  The audit had been undertaken in February 2020 and resulted in an unsatisfactory audit opinion and a set of recommended actions.  Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on the Revenues and Benefits team, not as much progress had been made as she would have liked since that time.  Notwithstanding this, Page No. 85, Paragraph 2.1 of the report set out that recommendation 1 – development of a checklist to support the collection and assessment of Discretionary Housing Payments information and recommendation 2 – review the inclusion of non-essential items as part of the scheduled review of the Discretionary Housing Payments Policy had both been fully completed to the satisfaction of the Internal Audit team and the revised policy was due to be considered by the Executive Committee in February 2022.  With regard to recommendation 3 – consideration to be given to the introduction of performance reporting in respect of Discretionary Housing Payments, although initial discussions had taken place with the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management, a suite of performance indicators were yet to be agreed.  Due to the impact of COVID-19 and capacity within the team, recommendation 4 – carry out an independent verification check on a sample of Discretionary Housing Payments, was still in progress.  As set out at Paragraph 3.2 of the report, a revised implementation date of April 2022 had been agreed for the two outstanding actions.

38.3          A Member noted that the Executive Committee had agreed to top-up the Discretionary Housing Payments budget with an additional £40,000 of Council reserves in January 2020 and he asked whether there were plans to request more funds.  The Revenues and Benefits Manager explained that had been a particular request to fund additional Discretionary Housing Payments from the Council’s own resources and it had not been necessary to make any further requests since that time.  The Council’s annual allocation was £78,000, of which approximately £17,000 had been spent to date; this was partly due to the implementation of the audit recommendations which meant that the payments were not as generous as they may have been in the past.  The Department for Work and Pensions would reassess the budget at the end of the financial year and, whilst it would hopefully still be a good amount, there was a risk that it would be significantly reduced based on the lower expenditure.  With regard to recommendation 2 and the re-assessment of non-essential items, a Member noted that some of the examples given, for instance, newspapers and magazines, were quite outdated and he asked whether television subscriptions, such as Netflix, would fall under that definition.  In response, the Revenues and Benefits Manger explained this was something which needed to be teased out in the revised policy as what was discretionary to some was essential to others and it could be tricky to navigate when it came to items which affected access such as mobile telephone and internet contracts.  The current policy took a broad stance whereby each case was assessed on its own merits so there were elements of subjectivity within that.  The Member raised concern that this was putting Officers in a difficult position and he felt it would be beneficial to have clear guidance on what would be considered essential.  The Revenues and Benefits Manager indicated that it would be helpful to have a Member steer on this when the policy came forward.

38.4          It was

RESOLVED           That the progress made against implementation of the audit recommendations in relation to Discretionary Housing Payments be NOTED.