Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) provide extra money when you need help to meet your housing costs.
We offer a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) to provide extra help with housing costs. If you are already receive Housing Benefit, or the Housing Element of Universal Credit and this does not cover your rent and you are in financial hardship, you can apply.
Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) provide extra money when you need help to meet your housing costs. It is a scheme intended to ease financial hardship. DHP is for residents who face a variety of financial difficulties. DHP helps with housing costs on a short term and temporary basis and gives residents time to find alternative solutions. There will be exceptional cases where a DHP is required in the long term; however, it should not be seen as a permanent solution.
DHP is not a benefit and the Council has a limited amount of money each year for those who need extra financial help. You do not have a statutory right to receive a payment.
You must make a formal claim for DHP before we can consider making an award.
We’ll look at your circumstances and decide whether your eligible.
Circumstances we will consider are issues such as:
A DHP may be awarded for rent in advance, a deposit and/or moving costs to support residents to move to more sustainable accommodation. This is to help prevent homelessness, but we will consider whether the new property is appropriate and affordable, therefore you must apply before you move.
Where this is the case we will need to check if you:
You will need to provide the following evidence if applying for rent in advance and/or rent deposits by uploading the following evidence during the online application process:
You will need to provide the following evidence if applying for moving costs by uploading the evidence during the online application process:
A DHP may be awarded for current rent costs if you are struggling to meet your current rental liability and Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing cost element does not cover your full rent costs (excluding ineligible service charges). Ongoing affordability will be considered before any DHP is awarded.
A DHP may be awarded towards rent arrears if you can provide evidence of how the arrears were built up and when, and you can show that you have been unable to meet your rent costs which has led to the arrears. Ongoing affordability will be considered before any DHP is awarded.
You will need to provide the following evidence if applying for a DHP for assistance with current rent costs or rent arrears by uploading the evidence during the online application process:
The council have launched one application form for all current discretionary funding schemes.
The Council Welfare service currently administers and operates three discretionary funding schemes of which there is one online application form for all schemes:
Applications for all discretionary funding schemes must be made online and we will only consider your application against each scheme that you apply for. Evidence must be uploaded before submitting the application online. The online application can also be treated as a claim for Council Tax Support and Free School Meals where there is eligibility and entitlement unless you do not wish to receive these additional benefits.
Before you submit your application, make sure you complete the form in full and upload all evidence needed (as indicated on the evidence checklist in the application form) to support your claim and avoid delay. If you fail to provide evidence needed in support of your application, your claim will be refused with no appeal rights.
If you are unable to make a claim online, then support to complete forms is also available from the Council’s digital champions volunteers who are available at local libraries and community HUBS.
The Homes and Money Hub may also be available to provide support on making an application if the criteria is met.
You must give authority to act to anyone completing an application on your behalf.
Our outreach visiting service can support to make an application only if the following circumstances apply:
If all of the above apply, then please email visitingandwelfareemails@lbbd.gov.uk you’re your contact details and details of which scheme that you wish to apply for and reasons for applying.
The level of payment will be decided by the Council. If Discretionary funding is awarded, we may provide budgeting advice and work with you the customer and develop an action plan to move towards your affordable long-term solution.
There is no right of appeal against a DHP decision. You can however ask us to look at the decision again. If your circumstances change, you can reapply. There is no limit on how many times you can claim a DHP.
Revenues and Benefits, Town Hall, 1 Town Square, Barking, IG11 7LU
Please note this office is not open for enquiries or document drop off and original documents should not be sent by post to us.
The personal information we collect from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment. Further details of how your information will be used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found on the Cifas website.