Help & Support

• Discretionary Housing Payments or DHPs are financial support to help with some parts of rent or housing costs
• Money is given by the Government to local authorities across England and Wales. It is then up to local authorities to decide how to best use the money to help with housing costs in their area

You can apply to your local authority for a DHP if you need help with housing costs and currently get either:

• Housing Benefit
• The housing element of Universal Credit

DHP support is only available for certain reasons:

• If you’re moving house and need to pay rent in advance or a deposit and can’t afford it – however you may only get DHP for some of the rent in advance/deposit, not all of it, and will need to speak to the landlord about the rest of the amount.
• If you can't get the full rent paid by housing benefit or UC because:
  - you have a ‘spare’ bedroom
  - the benefit cap is being applied
  - local housing allowance rates mean that housing benefit or UC can’t meet your full rent costs.

If you have rent arrears because part of the rent can’t be paid by Housing Benefit/UC due to current benefit rules, you can ask if the local authoity will consider clearing this debt – especially if this will help you move to a home with the right number of bedrooms for your needs. However, they may not be able to do this – it depends on the financial pressures in your area.

• Any help is decided on an individual basis at the discretion of the local authority where you live. Most local authorities have an application form on their website (paper copies are sometimes available). The easiest way to find this will be to do an internet search for the name of your local authority plus ‘discretionary housing payment’
• You will need to provide proof of income from wages or benefits for everyone in your household. The form will ask you to fill in a financial statement/income and expenditure form and may ask for copies of your bank statements. This is to help the local authority  to decide how much support to give you based on your individual financial circumstances
• If you think you might struggle with the form and don’t have any friends/family who can help, please see if your local authority can support you to complete it. If not, you can speak to Citizens Advice or the tenancy support team at VIVID to ask for help to apply