The Shropshire Star report:
The local authority distributed £81,285 in discretionary housing payments (DHP) to residents needing financial help between April and June this year.
The fund was introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) last year after uproar caused by the Government’s under-occupancy charge,dubbed the bedroom tax.
Up to 370 DHP applications were made in Shropshire during the first three months of the financial year, according to details supplied in a Freedom of Information request. But 215 of those were declined or refused.