Discretionary housing payments
If your rent is not met in full by housing benefit or universal credit and you have a temporary situation which makes it difficult to pay your rent, you can apply for extra help in the form of Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs).
To qualify for a payment you must be receiving housing benefit or the housing costs element of universal credit,
We only have a limited amount of money each year to help residents with DHPs, so we need to ensure that DHPs are given to people who need them most. Therefore, you will need to satisfy us that there are very good reasons for this kind of payment to be given to you.
Things that we take into account when assessing applications are:
- A non-dependant deduction
- If your benefit has been reduced due to the benefit cap
- You are a council tenant or a housing association tenant who is affected by the ‘bedroom tax’ and have exceptional circumstances
- You are a private tenant and we think your rent is too high
- Your income means you do not get full benefit
If you want to apply for a DHP, make an application for homelessness prevention advice and assistance and make sure you tell us as much as you can about your circumstances and why a DHP would help you in the question about DHPs.
Read Newham's DHP policy (PDF)
Review Newham's DHP priority categories (PDF)
