£8m in DHP Funds Left Unspent By Councils

Councils across Britain failed to spend nearly £8m in Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) last year.  Councils have claimed that they failed to spend all of their allocations in anticipation of benefit changes, however, there are suggestions that reductions in housing benefit staff is hampering councils' ability to administer the funds.  A spokesman from the DWP said a decision was made last year to allow councils to carry-over any unspent DHP funds into the next year. Many had decided to do this, he added, as a strategy to face the planned benefit changes. This year's DHP pot is £60m. Next year's will rise to £165m but the year following will see the fund drop down to £145m.  Read more on 24dash.