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How to target your Discretionary Housing Payments well

Janet Harkin

Janet Harkin Published on 23rd October 2019

โ€œWe have recently purchased the discretionary housing payment module from Policy in Practice. We will be expecting our housing and voluntary sector partners to use the calculator when they make the DHP applications. That’s going to really speed up our decision making and be really useful to those partners because they will be able to give people a really good idea of whether they are likely to get something from us. ”

Ellie Kershaw, Tackling Poverty Programme Delivery Manager, Tower Hamlets Council

Short of time? Listen back to our guest speaker only (with subtitles).

It’s hard for local authorities to be sure that support is reaching the households that need help the most. We know that 9 in 10 applications for a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) are successful, yet only 1 in 5 households that need a DHP apply. Using our LIFT Dashboard, we help local authorities carry out a full needs assessment, as recommended by the DWP, using housing benefit data to create insights that will make council’s DHP funds go further.

In this webinar we looked at levels of financial resilience and the need for Discretionary Housing Payments. We were joined by Ellie Kershaw, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, who discussed how they spend DHP money in line with their local priorities and how they’re raising awareness and increasing referrals from those in need.Listen back to hear how LIFT Dashboard and Better Off Calculator helps Tower Hamlets Council to:

  • ensure the consistency of help given by frontline staff
  • reduce the time it takes staff to understand eligibility for a DHP
  • evidence how well their DHP strategy is working

View slides (no audio) here

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