Housing benefit (HB) is help with rent and some other housing costs. This does not include mortgage costs, which may be met if you claim income support, pension credit, income-based jobseeker's allowance or income-related employment and support allowance.
This factsheet outlines the housing benefit system in England, Scotland and Wales. You can find out information on the Northern Ireland system from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive website at www.nihe.gov.uk/housing_benefit/ and the Land and Property Services website at www.lpsni.gov.uk/.
You can get housing benefit if you:
Not all rent is eligible for housing benefit help. If you have been living in private rented accommodation since before 7 April 2008 you may not get all of your rent paid if your property is considered too large for your needs or it is considered too expensive. For more information on eligible rent see the Disability Rights Handbook.
If you move into, or claim housing benefit for, private accommodation after 7 April 2008 your housing benefit eligible rent will be assessed under the local housing allowance scheme (LHA).
Some people, in pilot areas, started getting housing benefit under the local housing allowance scheme before 7 April 2008.
If you are already on housing benefit and you think you can benefit from the new LHA scheme you can withdraw your existing claim and make a new claim, which will be treated as a claim for LHA. However if you do this you will lose some help with rent as there will be a minimum period of one week before your benefit is re-instated.
Local housing allowance (LHA) is a set amount of housing benefit paid if you are in private sector rented accommodation. The amount you get depends on:
The advantage of LHA is that it allows you to rent a property where the rent is lower than the set LHA level. If you do this you will still be paid the full LHA rate and allowed to keep the difference up to a maximum of £15 above the rent you pay.
If your LHA level is less than your rent, even if you are entitled to maximum benefit, you are expected to make up any shortfall or seek cheaper accommodation.
A Rent Officer is responsible for identifying Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMAs) which contain a mix of accommodation.
Once these BRMAs have been allocated a LHA figure will be assigned, according to a set formula. Basically, within the BRMA, an average rent will set for different sizes of accommodation.
This figure is reviewed every month by the rent officer and notified to the Local Authority so that it can be made public for landlords and tenants to view. However once you make a claim for help with rent on a particular property the assessment will remain unchanged for a year.
LHA applies only to properties in the deregulated private sector. Currently LHA does not apply to:
There are no plans to extend the LHA scheme to tenants in social housing at present, although the government is looking at ways of ‘encouraging tenants to take greater personal responsibility for managing their own rent payments’.
LHA allows you a certain number of bedrooms (the size criteria). You are allowed one bedroom for:
No other rooms are taken into account.
Since 6 April 2009, if you live in a property with more than five bedrooms, your LHA is capped at the maximum rate for five bedrooms.
If you are making a new claim or you move from your old property these rules will apply immediately.
If you were already getting housing benefit under the LHA rules before 6 April 2009 and you live in a property with more than five bedrooms (which costs more than the capped rate) you will have your case reviewed.
This review will usually be on the anniversary of your claim. After the review you will be given your old rate for 26 weeks (transitional protection), after which the five bedroom cap will apply.
For more information see The Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/614).
If you are under 25 years of age your LHA will be based on 1 bedroom in shared accommodation unless you qualify for a severe disability premium (see below), or if you are a care leaver aged under 22.
If you are over age 25 you are allowed the normal single bedroom rate unless you live in shared accommodation, in which case the rate for one bedroom shared accommodation is used.
If you have a partner, but no children, the rule is the same as that for claimant's over 25 years of age.
The rent will be paid to the tenant rather than the landlord, though there will be some safeguards for landlords to prevent non-payment by tenants.
Direct payments will still be made to a landlord where the claimant is 8 weeks or more in arrears with the rent. The landlord will also receive payments where the tenant is unlikely to pay their rent, or where it is thought they will have difficulty in managing their affairs i.e. vulnerable. It will be up to the local authority to decide both of these criteria.
The amount you get will vary depending on your circumstances. Housing benefit assessments are divided into two parts.
You can view the current benefit rates on our website at www.disabilityalliance.org/benrate.htm.
The maximum housing benefit you can be paid cannot exceed your eligible rent/local housing allowance assessment (see above). If you need additional help with rent you may be able apply to your local authority for a discretionary housing payment.
Your housing benefit will be affected if you have a non-dependant living with you.
A non-dependant is someone who is over 18 who is not your partner or a:
Any adult son or daughter is considered to be a non-dependant.
A deduction is made to your maximum Housing Benefit for each non-dependant who lives with you. The amount of any deduction depends on the non-dependant's income. If they are under 25 and on income support, income related employment and support allowance, income-based job seeker's allowance (JSA), or if they are a full-time student, then no deduction is made.
Non-dependant deductions are not made if you or your partner is registered blind or receives the DLA care component or Attendance Allowance.
These are paid to you for the people in your household. The amounts paid depend on your age, whether you are single, a lone parent, part of a couple (whether married or living together or a civil partner) or have children.
Your household includes your partner and any dependent child or qualifying young person living with you.
You may get the following personal allowances:
single and under 25 – £50.95
single and age 25 and over – £64.30
single and entitled to main phase employment and support allowance - £64.30
lone parents age 18 and over - £64.30
a lone parent entitled to main phase employment and support allowance - £64.30
single age 60 to 64 - £130.00
single age 65 and over - £150.40
couples age 18 and over - £100.95
couples age 60 to 64 - £198.45
couples age 65 and over - £225.50
You will also get £56.11 for each dependent child or qualifying young person living with you
A dependent child is a child under age 16. A qualifying young person is some one who is under 20 and either in full-time non-advanced education or approved training which began before he or she was 19.
You will also get an additional allowance if you are claiming employment and support allowance (see Factsheet F31 - employment and support allowance overview). This will be:
If you are in the work-related activity group - £25.50
If you are in the support group - £30.85
You can get extra amounts in the form of premiums if you satisfy certain conditions.
You can get any or all of the following premiums if you satisfy the rules for them:
carer premium
disabled child premium
enhanced disability premium
family premium
severe disability premium
In addition to these premiums you can get one of the premiums listed below. If you qualify for two of the premiums on this list you will get the one which pays you the most. The list starts from the lowest paying to the highest:
family premium lone parent rate
disability premium
You or you partner must be entitled to carer's allowance, even if you are not actually paid it because you receive another benefit. This premium is payable for each person who qualifies.
You must be under age 60 and one of the following applies to you or your partner:
If you have a partner you will be paid a higher couple rate of this premium.
You cannot get this premium if you are getting employment and support allowance and have a limited capability for work.
You must have a dependent child or qualifying young person under age 20 who is getting disability living allowance or who is registered blind. The premium is paid for each child who qualifies.
You or your partner must satisfy one of the following:
If you have a partner you will be paid a higher couple rate of this premium.
You must have a dependent child or qualifying young person under age 20. If you have a child under the age of one you will get an additional amount.
Family premium lone parent rate
This premium is paid instead of ordinary family premium. You can get it if you claimed housing benefit before 6.4.98.
You or your partner must satisfy all of the following:
There is a couple rate if both of you qualify.
You cannot get housing benefit (HB) if your capital or savings (or you and your partner's capital or savings) is above £16,000. Your HB will be affected if your capital or savings (or you and your partner's capital or savings) is above £6,000.
There is no upper savings limit if you are getting pension credit guarantee credit and claiming housing benefit.
Since 2 November 2009, the lower capital disregard limit for people old enough to qualify for pension credit has been raised from £6000 to £10,000.
If your capital is between the lower and upper limits, a ‘tariff income’ is assumed. One pound a week for every £250 (or part of £250) above the lower limit is included as your income.
For example, if you have capital of between £6,250.01 and £6,500, £2 a week is included as your income. Each time capital gets into the next block of £250 (even by as little as one penny) an additional £1 is included as income.
If you or your partner are aged 60 or over and you are getting housing benefit and not claiming income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance your assumed tariff income is one pound a week for every £500 (or part of £500) above the lower limit.
Some of your earnings are not taken into account when working out housing benefit. This is normally £5 if you are single or £10 if you have a partner. You will have £20 of your earnings disregarded if you qualify for the disability premium or the carer premium. You will have £25 of your earnings disregarded if you are a lone parent.
Some benefits are not taken into account when working out means tested benefits. These include attendance allowance, child benefit and disability living allowance.
Your housing benefit and can continue at your old rate for four weeks if you find work and you were getting :
To get housing benefit extended payments you must have been on one of the above benefits for at least 26 weeks and your job must be expected to last at least 5 weeks. You do not need to make a claim to receive extended payments.
The term "right to reside" is not defined but is dependent on your immigration status and nationality. You might have a right to reside under United Kingdom rules, EC law or because you are a British citizen.
The habitual residence test is a test to see if you normally live in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland or the Isle of Man). The test will be applied if you have been living abroad.
There is no legal definition of 'habitual residence'. Relevant factors are where you normally live, where you expect to live in future, your reasons for coming to this country, the length of time spent abroad before you came here, and any ties you still have with the country where you have come from.
However, the test should not be applied if someone:
If these do not apply, a Decision Maker (DM) will decide whether you are habitually resident or not. Get advice if you fail this test.
You can claim housing benefit at the same time as you claim income support, employment and support allowance, incapacity benefit or jobseeker's allowance.
If you are not claiming these benefits you can claim by phoning your local authority.
You can also claim from your local authority using their claim form.
You can get HB as a student if you:
Full-time students living in accommodation provided by their educational establishment can claim for this accommodation if they are eligible for HB. Part-time students renting accommodation from their educational establishment may also be able to get help if they can establish that they are eligible for HB had they been a full-time student.
If you have a partner and have to live in two separate homes while you are on the course, you can get HB for both homes only if you are eligible for HB as a student.
You may not get housing benefit if you are:
You can get help at a local advice centre, such as a citizen's advice bureau. You can get more information about this from our factsheet F15, Finding a local advice centre, which is available at www.disabilityalliance.org/f15.htm.
You can also find out more information about housing benefit in Disability Alliance's "Disability Rights Handbook", available to buy at www.disabilityalliance.org/drh35.htm.
You can obtain copies of our factsheets by contacting Disability Alliance on 020 7247 8776 (voice and minicom) or by fax on 020 7247 8765.
The website https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk has a number of LHA factsheets for you to download. It also has:
Your local authority may also provide information about local housing allowance on its own website.
www.disabilityalliance.org - 2 March 2010
