The NAO investigation found that some local authorities face increasing gaps in funding for supported housing because of the way the DWP’s Housing Benefit regulations work. “Subsidy loss” is the gap in funding between how much rent a housing provider charges to a local authority and how much of it the local authority can claim back from DWP, in line with Housing Benefit rules which are set out in legislation. In some cases, local authorities cannot claim the full amount of rent back and must ...

The NAO investigation found that some local authorities face increasing gaps in funding for supported housing because of the way the DWP’s Housing Benefit regulations work. “Subsidy loss” is the gap in funding between how much rent a housing provider charges to a local authority and how much of it the local authority can claim back from DWP, in line with Housing Benefit rules which are set out in legislation. In some cases, local authorities cannot claim the full amount of rent back and must cover the remaining costs from their own budgets.48 Type: conclusion | Number: 24 | Response status: not_accepted Government response: 6.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 6.2 DWP agrees that it should consider feedback from LAs on subsidy loss. As subsidy is not part of the scope of the Act there is no plan to ask an explicit question as part of the consultation, but DWP fully expect that some stakehol