Some local authorities face increasing gaps in their budgets because of the way DWP Housing Benefit regulations work. Local authorities pay housing benefit directly to providers and ‘subsidy loss’ is the gap 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 under Housing Benefit rules. In some cases, local authorities cannot claim the full amount of rent back and must cover the remaining costs from their own bu...

Some local authorities face increasing gaps in their budgets because of the way DWP Housing Benefit regulations work. Local authorities pay housing benefit directly to providers and ‘subsidy loss’ is the gap 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 under Housing Benefit rules. In some cases, local authorities cannot claim the full amount of rent back and must cover the remaining costs from their own budgets. Subsidy loss varies across different local authorities, but overall, the problem is increasing, while local authorities already face financial pre Type: conclusion | Number: 6 | Response status: not_accepted Government response: The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 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 full