Successful bids from local authorities for the Supported Housing Improvement Programme have included work to reduce subsidy loss in local areas. DWP told us that local authorities can reduce subsidy loss by scrutinising Housing Benefit claims more by overseeing providers and asking for breakdowns of bills that come through on service charges.51 However, whilst this may reduce some subsidy loss in some areas, this may not go far enough to bridge the gap in funding that local authorities are ex...

Successful bids from local authorities for the Supported Housing Improvement Programme have included work to reduce subsidy loss in local areas. DWP told us that local authorities can reduce subsidy loss by scrutinising Housing Benefit claims more by overseeing providers and asking for breakdowns of bills that come through on service charges.51 However, whilst this may reduce some subsidy loss in some areas, this may not go far enough to bridge the gap in funding that local authorities are experiencing.52 When we challenged DWP on this, it told us that subsidy loss is set out in Housing Benefit regulations, although DWP has committed to explo Type: conclusion | Number: 26 | 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