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• the ‘comprehensive’ approach, uising both DSS and own guidance
(adopted by 50 per cent of authorities),
• the ‘independent’ approach, pnncipally using own policies (19 per
cent),
• the DSS-based’ approach. principally using the official guidance (23
per cent),
• the ‘case—based’ approach, ~inng neither form of guidance (nine per
cent)
Using this typology the findings Irons the survey included the following
• Scottish authorities rely on DSS guidance the most, London Boroughs
and Welsh authorities the least,
• the independent approach is used nuost in London,
• more muerropolatani authorities adopt the coniprehensi~eapproach than
other authonties
The scope arid content of the docunisentation used by local authorities iii
deciding applications varied eniorinously Particularly striking was the
number of authorities who require applicants to complete detailed
expenditure formiss as part oftheir application Some authorities had devised
scoring systenis for assessing applications
Housing Benefit claimants can ask a local authority to supply them with
a prt-reriancy deternri,,cittoii giving an iiidication of the likely amount of
benefit they would receive if they took on a particular tenancy The
large majority olauthonties take pre-tenancy deteniunations into account
when deciding applications for e~ceptionsalhardship paymcnts, although
the existence ofa determination would not be a sufficient reason to reject
an application
Outcomes ofapplkations for C)fnhe 305 local authorities in the survey, 288 authorities supplied figures
exceptionsab hardship payilients for the number of exceptional hardship payments awarded in 1997/98
Of these, 248 were also able to supply figures for the number of
unsuccessfuil applications Aggregating the responses from these latter
authorities shows that 9,483 exceptional hardship pavnients were made
from 22,034 applications, an overall success rate of 43 per cent The
mean number of payments iii these authorities was 38 within a range of
between one and 664
One in five authorities were making some relatively high weekly payinenl~,
in excess of~50 and a small number had niiade payments of over LlU0
per week However almost all authorities reported ar’er~~eweekly
payments ofL3O or less Exceptional hardship payment cases then tended
to fall into one of nvo types cases where the nature of the exceptional
hardship was considered teinporaiy, which would be removed when the
claimant found more suitable accommodation, and cases where the nature
of the exceptional hardship was considered permanent and which couild
not be alleviated by a move to other accon’unodation
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