From 2 July 2001, Local Authorities have been granted new powers to pay discretionary amounts to top up the Housing and Council Tax Benefit statutory schemes. The legislation governing DHP’s can be found in the Discretionary Financial Assistance Regulations 2001 (S1 001/1167).
There are two separate DHP schemes, one covering shortfalls between rental liability and payment of Housing Benefit and one covering shortfalls between Council Tax liability and entitlement to Council Tax Benefit. Every claimant who is entitled to the minimum amount of Housing and / or Council Tax Benefit and who has such a shortfall is entitled to make a claim for help.
The main features of the new schemes are that
-
the schemes are purely discretionary; a claimant does not have a statutory right to a payment.
-
the amount that can be paid out by an authority in any financial year is cash-limited by the Secretary of State.
-
DHP’s are not a payment of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit. However, the minimum amount of HB / CTB must be in payment in the benefit week that a DHP is awarded for.
|
|
