Introduction

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are short term or one off payments you can apply for if you are experiencing financial hardship and cannot afford to pay your rent.

To be considered for a Discretionary Housing Payment you must:

• be getting either Housing Benefit or the housing cost element of Universal Credit
• show that there is a shortfall between your rent and benefit entitlement
• show that you need extra financial support for a short period of time, based on your financial and personal circumstances

If you are a European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA) or Swiss citizen, you must also provide proof of your EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (Opens in new window) status. You will not be eligible for a DHP without this.

Visit GOV.UK to find out how you apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (settled and pre-settled status) (Opens in new window)

For full information about Discretionary Housing Payments, please read our DHP policy (Opens PDF in new window).

Before you start this form, make sure you have the following information:

• your National Insurance number
• your Housing Benefit reference number, if you are receiving Housing Benefit
• your latest Universal Credit award letter if, you are receiving Universal Credit (rent breakdown and personal allowance must be shown)
• details of your income, including amounts you receive
• breakdown of your expenses and how you spend your money each week
• details of any arrears or debts you have and the repayment amounts
• proof of savings - last 2 months of bank / building society statements for each account you (and your partner) hold
• tenancy details

Please make sure you have all the information you need to hand before you start this form and save your form regularly.

For website security reasons, this form will time out after 8 minutes. Any information added after this will not be saved. If you need to come back to your form, you can access it at any time in your Housing Benefits account. Please do not duplicate your application or complete multiple applications after submission.
Applications not submitted within 30 days of being started will be deleted and the saved details will no longer be available. However, you will be able to start the application again.