Agenda item

Agenda item

Discretionary Housing Payments

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer attached

 

This report provides an update on the officer proposal that Members were considering as part of the 2021/22 budget consultation to remove £1.5m of the £2m additional Council contribution to the Discretionary Housing Payment Scheme Budget.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which provided an update on the Council’s Discretionary Housing Payment scheme and the potential impact of anticipated budget cuts

 

Key points and themes in the report included:-

 

·                     The officer proposal that was being considered as part of the budget consultation was to remove £1.5m of the £2m additional Council contribution to the Discretionary Housing Payment Scheme Budget;

·                     The Council’s contribution has supported the policy objective to sustain tenancies and avoid further intervention and support costs;

·                     Taking money out of the system would mean that decisions would have to be carefully managed to ensure that the Council could continue to support its most vulnerable residents;

·                     The Council could if required, reduce the budget and still provide valuable, additional support to residents in the city that need extra support with rent costs with a reduced contribution of between £500,000 and £1m; and

·                     The impact of which would depend upon what the government did with the, at present, temporary changes to Universal Credit and Local Housing Allowance.

 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

 

·                     Why had the percentage of cases relating to Registered providers increased significantly;

·                     It was suggested that when referring to under occupancy in the report this needed to be clear that this was a bedroom tax introduced by the previous coalition government to target the least well off;

·                     There was concern that the potential cuts to this budget would impact on potential further homelessness incidents and as such any decision should be put on hold until the next financial year;

·                     There was a need from Government to commit to the £20 payment in regard to Universal Credit;

·                     If the DHP budget was reduced, what contingencies would be in place to put more money in to the budget if pressures increased during the course of the next financial year;

·                     What processes were in place to handle, in a timely manner, housing benefit claims for temporary accommodation;

·                     Was there enough resources to support the level of homelessness being presented in the city;

·                     Members did not feel it was appropriate to remove £1.5m of the £2m Council contribution to DHP and the Chair proposed instead that the Council made a contribution to this budget at £1m in order to maintain the current level of service.

 

The Head of Corporate Assessments advised that the number of cases per registered providers had increased in large part due to the proportions of the payments being made, as the proportion paid to homelessness cases had reduced by some extent which had in turn increased the proportion being paid in to registered providers.

 

The Leader, whilst acknowledging the point being made, advised that reference to under occupancy being referred to as a bedroom tax was a political terminology, which was not appropriate for Officers to be using when producing reports.  He also advised that he recognised the point being made around the potential impact of cutting this budget would have on the number of homelessness cases, but to maintain the current level of intervention would result in an over budget of between £0.5m and £1m and this was not appropriate to do.  He added that whilst the budget could be reduced for 2021/22, in subsequent years there may be the need to increase it again due to the uncertainty of changes to Universal Credit and Local Housing Allowance

 

The Committee was advised that the Council would always maintain an unallocated contingency budget for instances where pressures for services became higher than anticipated.

 

The Head of Corporate Assessments advised that there were fortnightly meetings with colleagues in Homelessness to try and address the issues arising with making timely and successful benefit claims for those in temporary accommodation.  It was acknowledged that this was a difficult area to overcome the issues that currently existed but was something that Officers were continually working on.  The Chair suggested a follow up note to Members on this would be beneficial.

 

The Leader commented that the Government’s Spending Review had identified additional funding to address homelessness but the precise details and allocation had not been released.

 

The Leader commented that he would be comfortable supporting the proposal for the Council to provide a £1m contribution to the service, which was in line with the current costs of maintaining the existing level of service and suggested that a deeper analysis of how other local authorities were supporting this service area via other routes.

 

Decision

 

The Committee recommends that the Council keeps its contribution to this budget at £1m in order to maintain the current level of service.

 

Supporting documents: