WELCOME TO MY ADVICE GATEWAY

My Advice Gateway is a free resource to help you quickly find the information you need to claim benefits, access help and support or look for a job or training opportunities. Other services include sections on banking, insurance and how to manage debt.

There is so much information available on the internet that it can often be a tedious and time consuming activity to search through the mass of advice that is available in order to find the information you need. Even government websites that have been set up to provide help can be difficult to find your way around.

My Advice Gateway has been built to help you find the information you need quickly and effectively. Links will take you to authoritative advice or the precise application form you need.

We hope you will find My Advice Gateway useful. If you do, why not tell your friends. . .

FOUNDER SPONSOR - LHS

LHS provides a complete range of web-based housing option services to more than 60 local authorities and hundreds of housing associations across the UK.

BROKEN LINKS

My Advice Gateway constantly checks its links to other information sources to ensure they work properly.

However, if you do find a link that does not connect, please let us know so that we can fix it quickly.

Simply drop us an e-mail and tell us which link did not work. We will check it out and put it right.

E-mail: info@myadvicegateway.com

DISCRETIONARY HOUSING PAYMENT

If you are already receiving Housing Benefit you may be able to get additional help from your local council if you are struggling to pay your rent.

Claiming Discretionary Housing Payments

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) can provide extra money when your council decides that you need extra help to meet your housing costs.

Your council will look at your circumstances to see whether you are eligible for a DHP. They will decide whether to give you a DHP, how much you will be paid and for how long you will receive the payment.

Who can claim a Discretionary Housing Payment?

Anyone who needs more help with housing costs and is currently claiming:

Housing Benefit or

Universal Credit with housing costs towards rental liability

You cannot get a DHP to help with council tax, although some councils run similar funds alongside their local Council Tax Support schemes.

The government has given councils funding to give DHPs to people who have been impacted by welfare reforms including:

the benefit cap

removal of the spare room subsidy in the social rented sector

changes to Local Housing Allowance rates, including the 4 year freeze

Some people may qualify for longer term support.

How can a payment be used?

You may be given a DHP to cover housing costs, such as:

a rent shortfall, for example, as a result of welfare reforms – for further information visit –www.gov.uk/housing-benefit

rent deposits or rent in advance if you need to move home

How do I make a claim?

This will depend on your council. You can find their contact details on letters from them, or check at –www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council.

More Information

More information on DHP is available is available at the following links:

Shelter

Turn2Us

This website uses cookies. By Continuing to browser our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can learn more about cookies by visiting our privacy & cookies policy page.

COOKIE STATEMENT

November 2019

This Cookie Statement explains how My Advice Gateway use cookies and similar technologies to recognise you when you visit our websites at http://myadvicegateway.org/GATEWAY ("Website"). It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them. For a list of our group entities, branches and their contact details, please see our contacts page at http://myadvicegateway.org/GATEWAY/CONTACT-US

1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners in order to make their websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, My Advice Gateway) are called "first party cookies". Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called "third party cookies". Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website (e.g. like advertising, interactive content and analytics). The parties that set these third party cookies can recognise your computer both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites.

2. Why do we use cookies?
We use first party and third party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Websites to operate, and we refer to these as "essential" or "strictly necessary" cookies. Other cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Websites. Third parties serve cookies through our Websites for advertising, analytics and other purposes. This is described in more detail below.
The specific types of first and third party cookies served through our Websites and the purposes they perform are described in the table below please note that the specific cookies served may vary depending on the specific Website you visit:

Types of cookie	Who serves these cookies	How to refuse
Essential website cookies: These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our Websites and to use some of its features, such as access to secure areas.	Cookie name: .AUTH ASP.NET_SessionId .ASPXAUTH ADFEAuthCookie ADConCtrlCookie AnonUserCookie CT_CookiePolicyAccepted CONSENT cp_sessionid csrftoken customerSession DL_Auth PHPSESSID	Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Websites to you, you cannot refuse them. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings however, as described below under the heading "How can I control cookies?".
	Sessionid
Performance and functionality cookies: These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Websites but are non-essential to their use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality, such as keeping you logged-in or prefilling web forms may become unavailable.	First Party (cookie name): __atuvs __hssc __hssrc __hstc allow_cookies hubspotutk SSOEX_208596 X-Mapping-fjhppofk __prestitial Third Party (cookie domain): .2021110566.log.optimizely.com .agkn.com .bing.com .bluekai.com .convertro.com .crsspxl.com .crwdcntrl.net .ctnsnet.com .demdex.net .dpm.demdex.net .exelator.com .eyeota.net .ezsubs.wrbm.com .fiftyt.com .go.affec.tv .mathtag.com .ml314.com .myvisualiq.net .nexac.com .onaudience.com .pagesuite-professional.co.uk .rfihub.com	To refuse these cookies, please follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?"
	.rlcdn.com .sddan.com .semasio.net .sp1.convertro.com .surveymonkey.co.uk .tapad.com .tidaltv.com .turn.com .volvelle.tech .w55c.net .www.surveymonkey.co.uk .yieldlab.net ADmessage admin.webpuzzleapp.com ai_session ai_user cdn.syndication.twimg.com ecom.webpuzzleapp.com Efficient Frontier grocerjobs-rs.madgexjb.com match.rundsp.com modules.liveweb.buzz Optimizely ps.eyeota.net r.myvisualiq.net Session support.escosubs.co.uk www.filechooser.com www.surveymonkey.co.uk
Analytics and customisation cookies: These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our Websites are being used or how effective our	First party (cookie name): __utma __utmb __utmc	To refuse these cookies, please follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?"
marketing campaigns are, or to help us customise our Websites for you.	__utmt __utmz _dc_gtm_ _ga _gat _gid dnm_c dnm_guestc dnm_l googtrans total-cost Third Party (cookie domain): .google.co.uk Google Analytics
Advertising cookies: These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.	First Party (cookie name): __gads utm_source Third Party (cookie domain): .adnxs.com .ads.linkedin.com .ads02-campus-media.de .adsrvr.org .advertising.com .bidswitch.net .company-target.com .feathr.co .pixel.rubiconproject.com .rubiconproject.com .smartadserver.com .tubemogul.com .veinteractive.com .weborama.com .weborama.fr __adroll __adroll_v4 __adroll_fpc	To refuse these cookies, please follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?"
	.yahoo.com ads.avocet.io Channel ID DoubleClick DSID GetClicky Google AdSense IDE pixel.rubiconproject.com tag.crsspxl.com www.entitytag.co.uk www3.smartadserver.com
Social networking cookies: These cookies are used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on our Websites through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes too.	First Party (cookie name): __atuvc Third Parties (cookie domain): .linkedin.com .pinterest.com .t.sharethis.com .www.linkedin.com AddThis Facebook ShareThis Twitter www.facebook.com www.instagram.com	To refuse these cookies, please follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?"

3. What about other tracking technologies, like web beacons?
Cookies are not the only way to recognise or track visitors to a website. We may use other, similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called "tracking pixels" or "clear gifs"). These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognise when someone has visited our Websites or opened an e-mail that we have sent them. This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our Websites to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our Websites from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of e-mail marketing campaigns. In many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly, and so declining cookies will impair their functioning.

4. Do you serve targeted advertising?
Third parties may serve cookies on your computer or mobile device to serve advertising through our Websites. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services that you may be interested in. They may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements. This can be accomplished by them using cookies or web beacons to collect information about your visits to this and other sites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services of potential interest to you. The information collected through this process does not enable us or them to identify your name, contact details or other personally identifying details unless you choose to provide these.

5. How can I control cookies?
You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies. You can exercise your cookie preferences by clicking on the appropriate opt-out links provided in the cookie table above. You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our website though your access to some functionality and areas of our website may be restricted. As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser-to-browser, you should visit your browser's help menu for more information. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/, http://optout.networkadvertising.org or http://www.youronlinechoices.com.

6. How often will you update this Cookie Statement?
We may update this Cookie Statement from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Statement regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies. The date at the top of this Cookie Statement indicates when it was last updated.

7. Where can I get further information?
If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies please e-mail info@myadvicegateway.com