Discretionary Housing Payments
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people who have problems with a claim for a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman can also consider some complaints about housing benefit – see our separate fact sheet on this. Housing Benefit is being replaced by Universal Credit. The Ombudsman cannot deal with complaints about housing payments made as part of a Universal Credit claim.
I have a problem with my Discretionary Housing Payment. Can the Ombudsman help me?
Yes, as long as your complaint is about the way the council has dealt with your DHP claim.
If you disagree with a decision the council has made on your DHP claim you can ask the council for a review.
How do I complain?
If your appeal is not successful and you think that the council has acted incorrectly then you can complain to the Ombudsman. If you have not asked for the decision to be reviewed we would ask the council to do that before we would look a complaint ourselves.
Usually, you should complain to us within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help.
For more information on how to complain, please read our step by step process.
If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
We consider whether the council has done something wrong in the way it went about dealing with your claim which has caused you problems. We cannot say whether you are entitled to payment or not. Some of the issues we can look at are:
- delay in processing your claim
- Not following its DHP policy
- delay in paying you or your landlord the payment after the claim has been decided
- failure to notify you properly of a decision and of your rights for a review, or
- unreasonable delay in responding to correspondence (we normally consider it reasonable to allow the council one month to process your claim once it has the necessary information).
What happens if the Ombudsman finds the council was at fault?
We can recommend that the council takes action to put the matter right. This depends on what the complaint is about, but we may ask the council to:
- reconsider a claim
- pay the payment due
- issue or re-issue a decision notice with the correct information and review rights, or
We can recommend that the council makes a payment to recognise its fault. The amount we ask for will depend on how you have been affected by what has gone wrong.
- Where we find that there has been unreasonable delay, we usually recommend a payment to recognise the anxiety and inconvenience caused. If you have got into arrears because of the delay, and your landlord is trying to evict you, we may ask for a payment to recognise the additional distress.
- In deciding how much to ask for we can also take account of what you have or haven’t done to help the council. So, for example, if you have taken a long time to provide information which the council needs to make a decision on your claim we may have to reduce the amount we ask for.
We may recommend that the council improves procedures so that the same problems do not occur again.
Examples of some complaints we have considered
In August 2023 Mrs X applied for a DHP the council refused this as it said she did not receive housing benefit or universal credit. It also failed to tell her could ask for a review. Two months later Mrs X found out she could ask for a review and did so. The council said she did not quality as she was not receiving the relevant benefits. Mrs X said she had been receiving universal credit since July 2023. The council reviewed its decision and awarded Mrs X a DHP from July 2023 to January 2024. It was not until December 2023 the council checked with the DWP to see if Mrs X was receiving Universal Credit.
In June 2024 Mrs X applied for another DHP. The council rejected this as it said she was not receiving Universal Credit, despite the fact she was. Eventually, in September 2024 and after Mrs X complained, she was awarded a DHP from April to August 2024. The council’s response to her complaint also failed to tell her how she could escalate her complaint if she remained unhappy.
The council was at fault in how it made its decisions to refuse the DHPs and in not telling Mrs X she could ask for a review or escalate her complaint. The council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and made her a payment to recognise the uncertainty, distress and inconvenience she suffered.
After a change in Miss X's circumstances the council awarded a DHP from February to August 2022. She then applied for another DHP. The council decided her outgoings were very high and she could reduce them. It made another award from August to November 2022. It explained to Miss X how she could reduce her outgoings or manage her budget. It said it might only consider further applications if Miss X had tried to reduce her outgoings or increase her income.
In October 2022 Miss X applied for another DHP. The council decided as her health had deteriorated since the last award it would continue to pay the DHP for another three months. It reminded Miss X DHPs were not a long-term solution, and it might only consider further applications if she had tried to reduce her outgoings or increase her income.
We decided the council considered the information Miss X provided. It also considered the amount and length of time it should award the DHP for. It decided the case on its merits and in line with the regulations and its own policy and procedure. It explained its decisions to Miss X, how she could make changes to her outgoings and how it may consider future applications. The tone of the letters was appropriate and contained suitable advice and guidance for Miss X. There was no fault in how the council reached its decision.
Other sources of information
Shelter has a section on Advice and Support on its website.
Citizens Advice has a Your Money/Benefits section on its website.
Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please contact us.
We provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result we aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.
August 2025