{"id":44083,"date":"2014-06-24T09:37:57","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T09:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=e6bb7ccf342e7b55c6f61a4f88a39278"},"modified":"2014-06-24T09:37:57","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T09:37:57","slug":"press-release-20-million-support-for-welfare-reform-claimants-unspent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=44083","title":{"rendered":"Press release: \u00a320 million support for welfare reform claimants unspent"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>New figures show that almost two-thirds (63%) of councils paid out less than their total Discretionary Housing Payment (<abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHP<\/abbr>) allocation to tenants, leaving \u00a313.3 million left over.<\/p>\n<p>Around three-quarters of councils also did not apply for a \u00a320 million government top-up fund to help claimants adjust to welfare changes, leaving a further \u00a37.1 million unspent.<\/p>\n<p>Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Freud, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We tripled support for vulnerable people to \u00a3180 million last year to ensure the right help was in place during our far-reaching welfare reforms and it is good to see that people have benefited from that support as they adapt to the changes.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s (24 June 2014) figures also show that recent scare stories about councils running out of money were grossly exaggerated. We urge people who may need additional help to contact their local authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Our vital reforms are fixing the broken welfare system by restoring fairness for hardworking people and making sure work always pays, as part of our long-term plan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The new figures also show:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>at the end of the financial year, 240 out of 380 local authorities (<abbr title=\"local authorities\">LAs<\/abbr>) across Great Britain underspent their <abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHP<\/abbr> funding<\/li>\n<li>almost 1 in 10 councils spent less than 60% of their total <abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHP<\/abbr> allocation, and 18 councils spent less than half<\/li>\n<li>in total, almost 400,000 <abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHP<\/abbr> awards were made to claimants in 2013\/14 to support the most vulnerable people through a range of housing benefit reforms<\/li>\n<li>over 160,000 of these awards were for extra funding to help claimants with housing costs while they look for work or more suitable accommodation, or to support them moving house<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thousands of people have been awarded <abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHP<\/abbr> funding to help them manage both their short and long-term housing costs.<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish and Welsh Governments provided extra financial support to claimants and an additional 85 councils in England topped up their <abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHP<\/abbr> funding.<\/p>\n<p>We have given councils \u00a3165 million this year \u2013 on top of \u00a3180 million last year \u2013 to help the most vulnerable claimants adjust to our necessary reforms.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"more-information\">More information<\/h2>\n<p>Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-2013-to-2014\">Use of Discretionary Housing Payments statistics<\/a><\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"local authorities\">LAs<\/abbr> are able to top up their government contribution towards <abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHPs<\/abbr> to a maximum of two and a half times this figure from their own funds.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013\/14 the Scottish Government allocated Scottish <abbr title=\"local authorities\">LAs<\/abbr> a share of a \u00a320 million pot with the stated intention that this was used to award <abbr title=\"Discretionary Housing Payment\">DHPs<\/abbr>. The Welsh Government similarly provided just over \u00a31 million to Welsh <abbr title=\"local authorities\">LAs<\/abbr> for the same purpose. <\/p>\n<p>The removal of the spare room subsidy ensures housing benefit pays for the size of property a household needs. It aims to free-up space for over 300,000 families living in overcrowded accommodation, while 820,000 rooms were going spare in under-occupied social housing.<\/p>\n<p>On top of this there are approximately 1.7 million households on the housing waiting list in England. It is right that we tackle this issue and bring fairness back to the system.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"contact-press-office\">Contact Press Office<\/h2>\n<p>Media enquiries for this press release \u2013 0203 267 5109<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_827\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Press Office<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"street-address\">Caxton House<br \/>\n<br \/>\nTothill Street<\/span><br \/><span class=\"locality\">London<\/span><br \/><span class=\"postal-code\">SW1H 9NA<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">London Press Office (national media and London area enquiries only \u2013 not questions about personal claims)<\/span><br \/>\n              020 3267 5144\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Out-of-hours (journalists only)<\/span><br \/>\n              076 59 108 883\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">England and Wales (local media enquiries)<\/span><br \/>\n              029 20 586 then 097or 098 or 099\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Scotland (local media enquiries)<\/span><br \/>\n              0131 310 1122\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow DWP on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Twitter \u2013 <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/dwppressoffice\">www.twitter.com\/dwppressoffice<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li>Facebook \u2013 <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dwp\">www.facebook.com\/dwp<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li>LinkedIn \u2013 <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dwp\">www.linkedin.com\/company\/dwp<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li>YouTube \u2013 <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/dwp\">www.youtube.com\/dwp<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than \u00a320 million specifically earmarked to help people adapt to welfare reforms was not spent by local authorities last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}