Making Discretionary Housing Payments work for disabled people
Papworth Trust has compiled a report on the effectiveness of Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) based on a series of Freedom of Information requests and an initial survey of disabled people.
The report indicates that:
- 1 in 3 disabled people are being refused a DHP
- Local Authorities have rejected DHP applications from disabled people who are living in adapted properties and are unable to downsize in the short term.
- Disabled people are cutting back on food and drink in order to pay the bedroom tax
Papworth Trust is calling for people living in adapted properties to be exempt
from the ‘bedroom tax’ and the Government to issue stronger guidance to Local Authorities that Disability Living Allowance (DLA) should not be counted as income when assessing applications for DHPs.
Currently section 3.9 of the DHP guidance says:
“……you may decide to disregard income from disability related benefits as they are intended to be used to help pay for the extra costs of disability. You may also want to bear in mind that such money might be committed to other liabilities for which the money was intended, such as Motability schemes or provision of care.”
You can download the Papworth Trust report at http://www.papworth.org.uk/downloads/makingdiscretionaryhousingpaymentsworkfordisabledpeople_130710181752.pdf
For more on the bedroom tax go to http://disabilityrightsuk.org/bedroom-tax