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Liverpool City Council would like to hear your views on a budget proposal to change the Discretionary Housing Payment Scheme. The council is looking to make savings of £1M from this scheme.
What is Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP)?
DHP provide financial support to low income and vulnerable households. DHPs help meet shortfalls in state benefits by providing extra help with the cost of rent, preventing rent arrears, protecting the tenancy and reducing the risk of homelessness.
DHP is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities receive an annual allocation every April. In 2021/22 the Government provided an allocation of £1.65M. In recent years Liverpool has added an extra £1M, each year, from its own budgets to top up the funding.
What are is the Liverpool City Council consulting on?
Due to budget pressures, the council needs to make overall savings of £73 million in 2023/24. They are consulting on a proposal to stop providing an extra £1M funding to the DHP scheme. This will mean that the DHP budget will be based on the Government annual allocation only. If agreed, the change will take place on 1 April 2023.
If this proposal is not agreed, the council may have to find £1M savings elsewhere which may result in other services being stopped or reduced.
For more information and to complete the survey, please click here.