Discretionary Housing Payments in Scotland: 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025

Official statistics show that, as of 31 March 2025, local authorities had spent 99% (£89.3 million) of the £90.5 million estimated total funding required for DHPs at the beginning of the year when allocations were made for 2024-25 (Table 4). At the same point last year, we estimated that local authorities had spent 101% of their £84.9 million funding for 2023-24.

There is considerable variation across the local authorities in the percentage of initial funding allocation which was spent between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 (Chart 5 and Table 4).

Twenty-nine local authorities spent more than their first tranche of funding, with the excess spend ranging from around £5,000 to around £2.9 million at local authority level. Cumulatively, these local authorities spent £15.5 million more than their initial allocations.

Twenty-four local authorities collectively spent around £3.3 million less than their total estimated funding. Annual underspends varied from £2,000 to around £639,000 at local authority level (Table 4).

Chart 5: Proportion of estimated 2024-25 DHP funding spent as at 31 March 2025