Discretionary Housing Payments in Scotland: 1 April 2025 to 30 September 2025
This publication provides information on Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) in Scotland over the six-month period from 1 April 2025 to 30 September 2025.
Information on applications, determinations, awards and total award value is included.
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Official statistics show that, as of 30 September 2025, local authorities had spent or committed 84% (£81.2 million) of the £97.1 million estimated total funding required for DHPs at the beginning of the year when allocations were made for 2025-26 (Table 4). At the same point last year, we estimated that local authorities had spent or committed 88% of their £90.5 million funding for 2024-25.
Proportionally, local authorities have spent around the same amount as last year on the Benefit Cap, although, due to an increase in available funding, the total amount of expenditure on this item has increased. Expenditure on Bedroom Tax has fallen compared to this time last year.
There is considerable variation across the local authorities in the percentage of initial funding allocation which was spent between 1 April 2025 and 30 September 2025 (Chart 5 and Table 4).
Chart 5: Proportion of estimated 2025-26 DHP funding spent as at 30 September