Help with Your Housing Costs

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If you need help to pay your housing costs you may qualify for help from an independent scheme administered by the council called discretionary housing payments.

What are discretionary housing payments?

Discretionary housing payments are not a type of housing benefit or council tax benefit. Instead, they are extra payments made to help with housing costs, council tax costs, or a combination of both.

There are some costs that we cannot pay to help with. These include ineligible service or support charges, and also rent if you only qualify for council tax benefit and not housing benefit.

Who qualifies for discretionary housing payments?

In order to claim a discretionary payment, you must:

• be entitled to housing benefit, council tax benefit or both
• be able to show us you need help meeting your housing costs

We’re sorry, but you cannot appeal against our decisions about the granting of discretionary payments.

To apply for a discretionary housing payment, you can download the application form below, or contact us and we will post one to you.

Discretionary housing payment application form (pdf - 63Kb)