Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department has given to Southampton City Council on the level of funding that will be available for discretionary housing payment in future years.

Justin Tomlinson

Local authorities, including Southampton City Council, were informed of their Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) funding allocation for this financial year on 4 February 2016.

Southampton City Council have been allocated DHP funding of £624,817 for 2016/17, a 35% increase from their 2015/16 allocation and local authorities are able to top up Central Government funding by a maximum of two and a half times this figure using their own funds

This package of Discretionary Housing Payment funding (£870 million over 5 years) will enable Local Authorities to provide support to the most vulnerable claimants.