Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director for Customers, Transformation and Resources.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Transformation and Public Realm Investment]

To agree the Policy/criteria for access to Discretionary Housing Payments.

The Cabinet Member for Transformation and Public Realm Investment introduced the report which sought approval for Haringey’s Discretionary Housing Payments Policy 2021/22, which set the methodology to determine the award of individual Discretionary Housing Payments during the financial year 2021/22.  The needs of Haringey’s residents had increased during Covid, and additional funding would be required to fill the gap if the allocation from the DWP was not increased.

In response to Councillor Emery, the Cabinet Member confirmed that Haringey had not returned any DHP allocation to the DWP.  For the current financial year, the allocation was £2.02m, the Council had allocated £2.2m and topped up by a further £300k which was likely to be exceeded also.

RESOLVED to

1.         Approve Haringey’s Discretionary Housing Payments Policy 2021/22 (set out in  Appendix A of the report) as the methodology to determine the award of individual Discretionary Housing Payments during the financial year 2021/22 having regard to the Equalities Impact Assessment (set out in Appendix B of the report).

2.         To note that at the time of writing this report the DWP have not confirmed the DHP allocation to Haringey for 2021/22. If notification arrives after this Cabinet meeting, Cabinet will be notified of the figure in the Quarter One budget monitoring report.

Reasons for Decision

The DHP Policy must be reviewed and approved every year in line with the changing funding allocated by the DWP.

Alternative Options Considered

None