Official Statistics

Background information and methodology: use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics

Published 8 July 2021

Applies to England and Wales

1. Introduction

These Official Statistics are published biannually and give a summary of Local Authority (LA) expenditure on Discretionary Housing Payments. These statistics have not been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority and have not been designated as National Statistics.

At the end of each financial year, the department requires that LAs provide details of their DHP expenditure for financial accounting purposes. LAs are legally required to provide this.

Additionally, LAs are asked twice a year to provide further details about their use of DHP funding. This is described as ‘monitoring information’ and is voluntary for LAs to provide.

Previously, both financial information and monitoring information have been provided on separate returns from LAs. Ahead of this statistical release, a combined return was created which asks for both the legally required financial information and the voluntary monitoring information on the same return. This statistical release presents a summary of these returns. It covers the whole financial year ending March 2021.

The statistics are released as part of a series of Discretionary Housing Payment statistics.

2. Methodology

These statistics are based on returns from Local Authorities that ask for mandatory financial information and voluntary monitoring information. The financial information is legally required for accounting purposes and details how much of the government contribution towards DHPs LAs have spent within the financial year (including any additional expenditure above the government contribution). This is the definitive measure of DHP expenditure. The analysis of this data focuses on comparing total spend (both including and excluding any additional funding that the LA provides) against central government allocations.

Any comparison of expenditure across years should be treated with caution as the government contribution to DHPs differs year to year (e.g. government contribution was £179.5 million in the financial year ending March 2021 whereas it was £139.5 million in the previous financial year).

By a deadline of 8 June 2021, 327 out of 336 Local Authorities had submitted a return. All of these returns included financial information. 9 out of 336 Local Authorities did not submit a return by this deadline. The department is contacting these LAs in order to obtain information about expenditure.

These statistics are also based on monitoring information, which gives further details of Local Authority expenditure on DHPs by splitting the spend by the purpose for which the DHP was awarded and the welfare reform (if any) with which it was associated.

Because the monitoring information is voluntary, not all LAs provide it, and some LAs do not supply all the information requested. This means that some LAs may provide a split by welfare reform, but not by purpose of the DHP.

Of the 327 LAs that submitted returns by our deadline of 8 June 2021, 314 provided a breakdown of expenditure by welfare reform whilst 304 provided a breakdown of expenditure by purpose of DHP.

When we gather returns, we perform various checks to assess whether they are accurate. For example, we check against the previous year’s figures and figures given to us at the mid-point of the financial year. We also check any results that look too big or too small. We then query any results that appear to be inaccurate with the Local Authority.

That said, the statistics rely on the accuracy of the returns. Although we believe they give an accurate overall picture, it is likely that smaller errors remain even after the quality checks above.

3. Trustworthiness and Quality

This publication is based on information provided by Local Authorities. While some quality checks are conducted, the results are not verified in detail.

Any discrepancies were queried with LAs and any resubmissions of corrected returns received by 14 June 2021 were accepted and included in the analysis. No results were altered without the explicit consent of the submitting local authority.

4. Definitions

4.1. Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS)

In April 2013 the removal of the spare room subsidy policy came into effect. This policy applies to working age social rented sector Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claimants (pensioner households are exempt). Where claimants are deemed to occupy more bedrooms than they need, as defined by the social sector size criteria, they are subject to a weekly reduction in the eligible rent used to assess their housing benefit.

4.2. Benefit Cap

Rolled out from April 2013 and fully implemented from September 2013, the benefit cap is a limit on the total amount of benefit that most working age households can receive. Since November 2016 the maximum amount couples and households with children can receive is £20,000 a year (£23,000 in Greater London) and £13,400 a year (£15,410 in Greater London) for single person households.

4.3. LHA Reforms

Tenants who rent from a private landlord and receive housing benefit or Universal Credit Housing Allowance generally have their claim assessed under the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rules. These determine the maximum amount payable in a given area depending on the household characteristics of the claimant. Reforms to the LHA system since April 2011 have generally restricted the eligible rent that can be met through Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.

5. Useful links

Publication page for this background document, the statistics release and supporting tables.

Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.

Read more information about statistics at DWP.

6. Contact information

Media enquiries: Telephone: 0203 267 5144

Responsible Analyst: Graham Walmsley
Email: Graham.Walmsley1@dwp.gov.uk

Author: Isaac Holliday
Email: Isaac.Holliday@dwp.gov.uk