The payments
Normally, we can only pay Discretionary Housing Payments for a short time, usually to give you time to find other ways of sorting out your financial difficulties.
Generally, we pay Discretionary Housing Payments for between 3 and 6 months, but we may pay you for a shorter or longer period depending on your circumstances.
Longer awards of up to 12 months may be made for example, where someone is recovering from a serious illness and is unable to move to smaller, more affordable accommodation until they recover; or where someone in the household is disabled and the accommodation has been significantly adapted to meet their needs.
When your payments have finished
Once we end your Discretionary Housing Payments, you can make a claim for a further award, but there is no guarantee that you will get the extra help again even if your circumstances have not changed.