Welfare

Sticking plasters

An assessment of discretionary welfare support

Karl Handscomb
Karl Handscomb

This briefing note assesses discretionary welfare provision – a small but increasingly important part of the benefit system. It provides a detailed analysis of changes in discretionary crisis and housing support over the past 20 years, and uses interviews with local authority employees and welfare advisers to draw lessons about current practice.

Discretionary welfare support has a vital role to play in the social security system, providing ad hoc support for families facing acute needs that are not covered by the main benefit system. However, the current system has been stretched thin, and we risk undermining discretionary support by relying on it too much in place of the main entitlement-based benefits.

Key findings

  • Discretionary crisis support has fallen significantly in the lead up to the Covid-19 pandemic, while spending on Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) has increased seven-fold.
  • Increases in discretionary support (notably, increases to DHPs in 2013 and to the Household Support Fund in 2021) have coincided with cuts to entitlement-based benefits.
  • £29 billion of broader benefit cuts means that, despite increases, discretionary support is over-burdened.
  • Devolution has led to stark differences in the provision of discretionary support, with Scotland providing over six-times as much support per person than England.
  • Localisation of crisis support in England has also led to one-in-four local authorities offering no discretionary crisis support at all.

Recommendations

  • The UK Government should ensure there is a minimum provision of discretionary crisis support across England, and produce statistics to show the scale of support provided by each local authority.
  • There should be central listing of all schemes available to improve access and availability of discretionary support.
  • Discretionary schemes should not be used as an alternative to providing an adequate social safety net through the main entitlement-based benefit system.

Further reading

Hard lessons
Childcare support for parents in education
·
Lalitha Try
Cutbacks ahead
Considering the impact of proposed changes to disability benefits on living standards and the public finances
·
Mike Brewer, Louise Murphy
Cold comfort
Mitigating the Winter Fuel Payment cut
·
Alex Clegg, Jonathan Marshall
Karl Handscomb
Karl Handscomb