News this month… The DWP have announced their DHP funding for 2015/16 and for Bristol City Council we will receive a 20% reduction as a comparison to the last couple of years. Our new fund from April 2015 will be £945,862. We can also carry over any of the additional £150k provided by the council that isn’t spent as there isn’t any restriction on when this money must be used, unlike monies awarded by DWP

On average we are processing DHP claims within 14 days and at present we have 150 applications to process with a date profile of 9

Th February 2015. As of today the DWP funding of £1,332,991.00 has been spent and

there is just the additional £150k left in the fund. We continue to make one off awards in advance and to consider backdating where requested. The DHP policy for 2015/16 has been shared for comment so please send us some feedback if there’s any changes you’d like us to consider.

Some statistics for you… For the purpose of this briefing note the figures provided are based on the period 1/4/14 to 31/1/15. The numbers of applications we have received so far are represented on the next graph. The purple line shows the current year and you’ll notice that the trend is very similar to last year’s, although is slightly lower in numbers, even though our budget increased. This has enabled us to continue the £30 income tolerance and to make larger awards.

£1,137,227.00

£1,332,991.00

£945,862.00

£150,000.00

£0 £200,000 £400,000 £600,000 £800,000 £1,000,000 £1,200,000 £1,400,000

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

DHP Funding by year

Additional Funding DWP Funding

Discretionary Housing Payments News letter February 2015

The next chart represents our monthly spend against our forecasted spend. The last 3 green columns represent the addition of the £150k which we’ve divided by the last three months of the year. We are slightly under target at the end of Januray due to still having a number of applications to process.

The next chart shows our in month spend as a comparison with last years spend. You’ll notice that this year (in blue) we’ve been slightly more consistent with the ammount we’ve allocated on a monthly basis compared to last year. The drop in spend for November was due to the team concentrating on other work areas and a backlog of DHP applications built up.

1

77 87 90

97 82 82 118 104

105

141

185

389 410

263

230

199 169

218

245 244

215

295

258

411

271

209 205

208

158

213 203

220

172

222

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

DHP applications received by year and by month since 2012/13

£162,655.33

£278,020.45

£382,904.46

£478,671.13

£549,197.67

£641,091.43

£754,417.65

£831,579.34

£943,186.76

£1,062,569.90

£0.00

£200,000.00

£400,000.00

£600,000.00

£800,000.00

£1,000,000.00

£1,200,000.00

£1,400,000.00

Apr may Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

Forecasted spend

Actual spend DHP spend versus forecast April 2014 to March 2015

.

Our biggest area of demand comes from those people affected by the under occupation charge (SSSC). We are starting to see more applications for help with removal costs as some of these people have been able to downsize.

£162,655.33

£115,365.12

£104,884.01 £95,766.67

£70,526.54

£91,893.78

£113,326.22

£77,161.69

£111,607.42 £119,383.23

£182,073.62

£95,433.00

£52,125.68

£60,612.36

£32,720.70

£48,619.18

£114,393.07

£103,275.43

£67,108.25

£87,953.21

£97,836.96

£191,650.62

£0.00

£50,000.00

£100,000.00

£150,000.00

£200,000.00

£250,000.00

Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March

2014 - 2015

2013-2014

DHP in month spend from 1/4/14 as a camparison to last financial year

72% 4%

10%

14%

SSSC

BEN CAP

NO IMPACT

LHA

% Spend by welfare reform