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- Published data about housing benefit, council tax support and welfare reform

Published data about housing benefit, council tax support and welfare reform

Information and figures on welfare reform, discretionary housing payments and council tax support claims.

Social sector size criteria

This came into effect on 1 April 2013.

Residents considered to be under-occupying their home by one bedroom have a 14% deduction in the rent we use to work out their housing benefit.

Residents considered to be under-occupying their home by two or more bedrooms have a 25% deduction in the rent we use to work out their housing benefit.

	Number of cases affected in Rushmoor	Under occupying by one bedroom (14% deduction)	Under occupying by two or more bedrooms (25% deduction)
April 2016	326	277	49
April 2017	329	284	45
April 2018	319	278	41
April 2019	285	245	40
April 2020	233	201	32
April 2021	213	182	31

In some cases, we have used discretionary housing payments to support residents affected by the changes - see the information below on discretionary housing payments for more details.

Benefit cap

The benefit cap came into effect on 15 July 2013 and applies nationally.

	Number of cases affected in Rushmoor
April 2016	16
April 2017	121
April 2018	89
April 2019	97
April 2020	57
April 2021	37

As with the social sector criteria, in some cases, we have used discretionary housing payments to support residents affected by the change.

Discretionary housing payments (DHP)

	Total discretionary housing payment allocation	Total discretionary housing payment allocated/paid
2021/22	£161,621	£40,009.18 (as at 1 July 2021)
2020/21	£292,051	£291,985.13
2019/20	£214,996	£213,169.99
2018/19	£226,135	£225,209.18
2017/18	£240,201	£239,969.99
2016/17	£169,424	£167,838.97

		2021/22	2020/21	2019/20	2018/19	2017/18
Number of DHP applications	Approved	61 (as of 1 July 21)	359	275	351	255
Number of DHP applications	Refused	32	60	109	40	33
Reason for DHP	Benefit cap	7	29	13	47	39
	Social sector size criteria	25	75	39	65	78
	Local housing allowance reform	8	37	24	31	43
	Not related (including Universal Credit)	21	218	199	208	214
Average spend		£656	£813	£775	£788	£617

For more information on discretionary housing payments, see our Types of benefit available page.

We aim to refresh this data at the end of each quarter.

If you would like more information, please contact our Freedom of Information team using the contact details on this page.

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Contacts

Freedom of information and data protection
foi@rushmoor.gov.uk
Tel: 01252 398603
Fax: 01252 398081
View full details

Published data about housing benefit, council tax support and welfare reform

Social sector size criteria

Benefit cap

Discretionary housing payments (DHP)

Contacts

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