Dumfries councillor attacks cuts to bedroom tax support

Cllr Colin Smyth, chairman of the welfare reform subcommittee on Dumfries and Galloway Council, told the Daily Record that the Scottish Government had made a “draconian” cut in the DHP allocation which will take the council’s fund from £1.4 million last year to £975,000 this year.

He said: “There has been a substantial reduction in allocations of funding for DHP. I don’t think anyone anticipated a reduction of this size. We thought we’d have sufficient funding for it but that’s not the case.”

The local authority is using its own funds to cover the shortfall. Discretionary housing payments have become increasingly important as they are used to reimburse welfare claimants in Scotland who face the bedroom tax.

Cllr Smyth said: “As a result of the Scottish Government cuts we faced the prospect of having to change the whole criteria for the payment of Discretionary Housing Payment which would have meant hundreds of people across the region seeing their payments reduced.

“We weren’t prepared to let that happen so we agreed to use other council funds to plug the gap for the next six months. We now have breathing space to look for additional funding to overcome these appalling cuts.”