Ashfield Council overspent on discretionary housing payments budget

Discretionary housing payments are paid by local authorities to cover shortfalls in residents' housing benefit or Universal Credit.

The Government gives a pot of money to each council to make these payments, but councils can top it up with their own funds.

The Government has frozen housing benefit for the last three years, and housing charity Shelter said benefits must be uprated to track the dramatic increase in rent over the last few years.

Department for Work and Pensions figures show Ashfield Council spent £189,864 on discretionary housing payments in 2022-23.

However, it was allocated a budget of £148,984, meaning it spent an extra 27 per cent on top of its allocation.

In 2021-22, the council spent 69 per cent of its budget.

Across England and Wales, local authorities spent an added 15 per cent of their combined allocation, with 42 per cent of councils overspending their budget by more than 5 per cent.

Just 11 per cent of authorities spent less than 95 per cent of their budget.

Polly Neate, Shelter chief executive, said the freezing of housing benefit means “desperate families are struggling to balance the books in the overpriced and insecure private rented sector”.

She said discretionary housing payments are needed to bridge the gap between housing benefit and rent, but added they are “only a sticking-plaster solution”.

Ms Neate said: “If the Government really wants to tackle the housing emergency, the Chancellor must urgently unfreeze housing benefit to help families pay their rent, but the only long-term solution to the housing emergency is for the Government to invest in a new generation of genuinely affordable social homes, with rents tied to local incomes.”

A government spokesman said nearly £1.6 billion in funding has been given to local authorities since 2011, “providing a safety net for people struggling with rent or housing costs”.

He said: “We are set to spend more than £30bn on housing support this year, on top of the significant cost-of-living help worth about £3,300 per household.

“It is for councils to decide how to allocate funding and manage their budgets, and they can top up government funding up to two-and-a-half times using their own funds.”