Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support
Discretionary Housing Payments and Exceptional Hardship Council Tax Support Payments
Discretionary Housing Payments
Discretionary Housing Payments are payments that we may be able to make to give you further assistance towards your rent or other housing costs e.g. rent in advance or removal fees.
To be eligible for Discretionary Housing Payments you must be in receipt of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit for the period that you wish to claim Discretionary Hardship Payments.
Other than the eligibility outlined above, there are no qualifying criteria as such: payments are made at the discretion of the Council. Each application is considered on its own merits and we will decide if a payment can be made and if it can, how much will be paid and for how long it will be paid.
Please note that payments are made from a limited fund, therefore if there are no funds available e.g. at the end of the financial year a Discretionary Hardship Payment will not be paid.
Payments for rent are awarded for a fixed period of time, once the award period has ended a new application must be made for a new period.
Payments can be made directly to the claimant or landlord.
As these payments are made at the Local Authority’s discretion, there is no formal right of appeal to the Tribunal Service against a decision on a claim, but we have our own internal review process and you can write to us to request that the decision is looked at again.
To apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment or to view the Councils Discretionary Housing Payment, please use this link form.
Exceptional hardship payment
Exceptional hardship payment are payments that we may be able to make to give you further assistance towards your Council tax, to be you must be in receipt of Council tax support for the period that you wish to claim Exceptional hardship payments.
The Council Tax Support Exceptional Hardship Fund has been established by the Council to aid those who are awarded Council Tax Support and who are facing exceptional financial hardship.
The limited fund has been created to provide further financial assistance where an applicant is in receipt of Council Tax Support which does not meet their full Council Tax liability.
To apply for a Exceptional hardship payment or to view the Council’s Exceptional hardship payment, please use this link.