The Forest of Dean District Council spent all its allocated budget for supporting people with housing costs last year, new figures show.

Housing charity Shelter called the payments "a meagre top-up", that do little to prevent families being forced into homelessness.

New data from the Department for Work and Pensions shows £71,841 was spent on Discretionary Housing Payments in the Forest Of Dean in the year to March.

These are one-off payments made by councils to people entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit, who are struggling to meet their housing costs.

The Forest of Dean District Council spent the entire amount allocated by the Government for these payments.

This was in line with the year before, when it just spent the allocated amount.

Last year, the Government provided £100m to councils to make these payments.

They are also allowed to top up this funding up to a maximum of two and half times their allocation, using their own funds.

Across England and Wales, councils spent 107% of the total allocation for the year, compared to 112% the year before.

Additionally, about a quarter of authorities spent over 105% of their allocation, while just 18% spent less than 95%.

Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at Shelter, said: "While Discretionary Housing Payments are important, they are merely a sticking plaster compared to what is needed to prevent families being forced into homelessness."

She added: "Huge shortfalls between housing benefit and the cost of rents means families are being forced to shell out eyewatering sums on private rents to avoid homelessness.

"Year on year, thousands of families are ending up homeless in cramped, unsafe temporary accommodation and left stuck there for months, even years, because there’s nowhere affordable or suitable for them to move on to."

She called for Local Housing Allowance to be unfrozen, so it covers "at least the bottom third of local rents", and the construction of more "genuinely affordable social rent homes".

The data shows the council spent £15,804 of its total DHP expenditure supporting those affected by various welfare reforms, including £2,612 on those hit by the removal of the Spare Room Subsidy.

Across both nations, 61% of DHP expenditure was attributed to welfare reform, with removal of the SRS accounting for 24%.

David Fothergill, chair of the Local Government Association's community wellbeing board, said the housing crisis is adding "additional pressure" to councils already facing "significant financial challenges".

He added: "The gap between what councils have paid out in benefits versus what they receive has exacerbated this, contributing to challenges faced by councils and communities in housing."

He called for the DHA to be brought in line with the Household Support Fund, a separate scheme to support households with the wider cost of living.

"Local government needs to be fully reimbursed for the support they have provided, as well as being a central partner with the Government as they work on aligning DHP and HSF," he added.

A Government spokesperson said: "We’re determined that no one should be living in poverty, and Discretionary Housing Payments are just one of the ways in which we’re helping people.

"We have also increased the National Living Wage, uprated benefits and are helping over one million households having introduced a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions, while our Child Poverty Taskforce develops an ambitious strategy to give all children the best start in life."