Benefit Cap an recourse to DHP fund when APA in place

Hi

I have a client who is newly in receipt of UC and is impacted by the benefit cap. As there is an APA in place full housing costs go straight to the landlord and the cap is deducted at a rate of £434.87 from her Standard Allowance. Can the client still apply to the DHP fund even though full Housing Costs are in payment?

Yes.  Four years ago DWP issued some guidance suggesting otherwise, but they completely climbed down.  If paying the full rent by way of APA leaves the claimant in an impossible position after the cap is deducted the council can say the claimant requires further assistance to meet their housing costs and award a DHP.  Remember UC is a smoothie - it doesn’t have separate bits, so they are not deducting the cap from the standard allowance, they are deducting the cap from the whole award and then diverting some of what is left to the landlord.

Short answer: Yes - para 2.11 in https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/discretionary-housing-payments-guidance-manual/discretionary-housing-payments-guidance-manual

Some LA’s may want the APA to stop first (who knows why).

Thanks for this - I will have to see what the LA response is.

hi
on cases like this where there is a managed paymrnt to landlord with full housing element in payment but cap applied, our authority will pay the DGHP to the claimant - (because othrwise they have literaly no money for food/ living costs) We wouldn’t ask for the managed payment to be removed ( we spend a lot of our time cajoling RSL’s into applying for managed payments in the first place! )
perfectly acceptable to do a DHP where managed payment in place and pay tthe DHP to the customer.