I have a client who works f/t and is in HF accomodation. The rent is therefore very high due to the furniture charge / utility chrages / rent itself and HF charge...

She receives a small amount of HB. She is in legal charge of a family member and gets CB/CTC for them..

I want to ask HB to pay more under DHP's, but I have never done this before and wonder if anyone could provide any asssistance in the wording of such a request...

Is there any legislation we could quote... I understand its discretionary.. but if anyone on here has had any success with such a request, I would gratefully appreciate any advice.

Thanks... pd.

Our Benefits section would send the client a form asking her to fill in all her weekly incomings & outgoings then a panel would look at the returned form & decide on the DHP. I see that MCC don't have a form (http://www.manchester.gov.uk/benefits/types/housing.htm), so perhaps you could just write to their Benefits section including a list of the client's weekly incomings & outgoings.

Its that simple...? Just a letter asking for the request with income and expenditure form..?

Are HB sections usually generous at giving these..? I wouldnt have thought they get many requests a year...

We do loads. On the whole our authority use their discretion well IMO.

You've absolutely nothing to lose by putting the request in.

Thanks for the advice and spurring me on.. Always a bit daunting doing something new so its good to know there are people out there to give you the encouragement you need.. I will let you know how I get on...

Thanks again.. x

Note from the inside: Councils have a Budget for the tax year, at the start of the year our DHP officer tends to be a bit cagey with her funds mindful that she has to make it last. Our officer bases her decisions on several factors

* Is eviction imminent
* Disabilities of claimants or family
* How large is the short fall
* have they looked for cheaper/alternative accomadation
* have they negotiated with LL
* Is the current property particularly suitable for any reason

Also if a pretenancy det has been requested by the claimant for the property, the answer is always no.

Hope this gives you some guidance

Thanks for that.. Ive just completed the request letter and sent it of, after reading DWP guidance on DHPs as well as the info on here..

The tenant is in h0omeless families temp accom due to violence - I have explained this.. I have explained that she is in early 20s with legal charge of 12 year old family memeber. I have also provided a financial statement showing her income and outgoings... Hopefully this will be enough..

Also asked round the area rents team and none of them has heard of any tenants in receipt of DHPs so general concessus is that they are not often requested...

Fingers corssed.. Will let you know the outcome..

One last thing.. I know you cannot appea as they are discretionary but if the request is rejected, can you put in another after a couple fo weeks or so...?

Local authorities with HB responsibility are allocated a fixed sum every year by central government, which they are supposed to match, to fund the DHP scheme.

We do quite a few of these: the criteria is simple - trying to meet the rent is causing financial hardship. increasingly, DHP's are being used to try and make up the shortfall between the asking rent and the RO's valuation. As with normal HB, DHP can only be used to pay rent - not any other charges which may be included, or any deductions for being over accommadated or having a non dependent living with you. Ours are limited to three or six months at a time, and can be renewed. A pretenancy determination would almost certainly be a major obstactle unless one's cirmcumstances were different from when the tenancy started.

Strangely enough, there dosn't appear to be any legal requirement to produce or use a form of any sort - we do, because it's easier to gather information, and the client signs it to say that the information given is accurate. If a request is turned down, I can't see the point of putting in another request immediately, unless the circumstances has changed significantly in the meantime.