Tuesday 20 May 2014 @ 10:20
Scottish Government
Printable version

Over £29million paid out to support housing costs for those in financial hardship

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland.

During 2013/14, local authorities (LAs) in Scotland made just over 87,000 awards under the Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) scheme, with a total value of over £29 million.

Statistics released today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician show that in the twelve months from April 2013 to March 2014, local authorities received nearly 111,000 applications to the scheme, which provides financial assistance towards housing costs for those claiming housing benefit. By the end of March 2014, around 107,000 of these claims had been processed and over 87,000 awards were granted. The average payment was around £335.

The figures released today were produced by independent statistical staff free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Notes To Editors

The full statistical publication is available at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/dhp 

This publication contains information on the number of applications for DHPs, determinations, awards and the total award values for each local authority from 1st April 2013 to 31 March 2014.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are a matter reserved to the UK Government (UKG). DHPs are administered in Scotland by the 32 Scottish local authorities (LAs). DHPs may be awarded when an LA considers that a housing benefit claimant requires further financial assistance towards housing costs.

DHPs can be used to provide support to claimants affected by some of the key welfare reforms, including the introduction of benefit cap, the removal of the spare room subsidy in the social rented sector and reductions in Local Housing Allowance.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/About

Channel website: http://www.gov.scot/

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