Councils Failing To Spend £Millions in DHPs as Families Struggle

Local authorities are failing to spend millions of pounds that could potentially be used as emergency payments for families hit by welfare cuts. Figures from the DWP show councils spent just £147 million of the £160m that was initially allocated to them in 2013/14 for discretionary housing payments (DHPs). When the DWP offered a further £20m partway through the year, councils bid for less than £13m of this extra pot. But with some councils exceeding government allocations and putting in £16.8m from their own budgets, total spending on DHPs reached more than £176m. This is more than treble the £56m that was spent on DHPs the previous year - prior to the introduction of the bedroom tax and benefits cap. Read more on 24dash.