Council saying PIP must be used for rent shortfall

NiksMum

Hi, my son whose rent is paid by housing benefit has had his rent increased, his housing benefit is the maximum he can get. He has applied for a discretionary housing payment but the council want him to explain in detail how he spends his PIP so they can judge whether he must use it to pay his rent. Anyone had experience of this? I thought you could spend PIP on whatever you wanted and not have to account for it. I cannot find anything online though which says this.

poppy123456

You are correct you can use PIP for what ever you want to. However, when applying for a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) it's exactly this (discretionary) and no one is automatically entitled to it.

They will look at your Income (including any disability benefit) and your outgoings and then make a decision based on those.

It isn't an easy or straight forward process to apply for a DHP and mostly they are only awarded in the most extreme circumstances. If you do manage to get a payment then usually it's only for a short period of time before you have to reapply.

NiksMum

Thank you for your reply.