What is Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit is help for anyone on a low income who pays rent. Applicants can claim whether they are in full time work or get Social Security benefits. Local councils deal with Housing Benefit claims and must follow rules set out by Parliament.

Who can claim?

Anyone who has to pay rent can claim Housing Benefit.

They may:

have a partner, or be single

be a pensioner

be employed or self-employed

get other Social Security benefits

But:

people with more than £16,000 in savings will not get Housing Benefit, even if their income is low.

full-time students cannot claim Housing Benefit unless they are:

pensioners, lone parents, disabled, getting Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance Income Based - known as JSA (IB) or they have a partner and have dependent children, or are responsible for a child boarded out with them.

Not sure if you can qualify?

Apply and let us work it out for you. It's free and it could save you money. You can use our online benefits calculator to see if you might qualify and for how much.

How do you claim ?

You can claim Housing Benefit any time, in one of these ways:

When you claim either Income Support, or JSA (IB) - the Job Centre Plus (JCP) will give you a Housing Benefit application form - Form NHCTB1. You must send this form directly to the Benefits Service at Runnymede with all the required documentation.

If you don't get Income Support or JSA (IB), you can get a benefit application form from Benefits Service.

Whichever form you use, you must send it in without delay, or you may lose some benefit.

When do you claim?

Claim Housing Benefit as soon as you think you need help with your rent. Benefit is usually paid from the Monday after the date we receive your claim form. We cannot normally backdate claims.

If you know your circumstances are going to change - possibly your income will be going down or you will be taking on a new tenancy soon - you can claim up to 13 weeks before you need help.

If you move home, it is important that you claim benefit within the first week of your tenancy starting.

How do we work out Housing Benefits?

To work out your benefit, we must compare the money you have coming in each week with the money the government says you need to live on. The benefit application form you fill in asks all the questions we need answered to work out if you qualify for benefit.

How much Housing Benefit you get depends on:

Your savings, money you have coming in, money the government thinks you need to live on, rent you pay and any other adults who may live in your home.

If you have a partner, we must also take account of their personal details.

Savings

If you and your partner have combined savings of more than £16,000, you will not get Housing Benefit. If you and your partner have savings of £6,000 or less, we will ignore them in working out your benefit. For every £250 in savings you have above £6,000, the rules say we must add £1.00 onto your weekly income. For example, if you have £3,500 savings, we add £2.00 onto your weekly income.

We ignore any actual interest your savings earn.

If you have dependent children who have savings of more than £3,000 you will not get an allowance in your applicable amount for them. We ignore a child's savings of less than £3,000.

How much money you have coming in

The money you and your family have coming in may be earnings or unearned income, such as social security benefits or pensions from work.

We can ignore certain parts of your income, such as Disability Living Allowance or War Pensions. However, you must still tell us about them.

How much money you need to live on

Parliament sets the minimum level of income you must have after paying your rent. This is called your Applicable Amount. Your applicable amount is made up of Personal Allowances and Premiums.

Personal Allowances depend on:

your age

whether you are single or have a partner

how many dependent children you have and their ages.

Premiums recognise that some people have special or extra needs, such as:

families

elderly people

people with a disability

carers - people who look after sick and disabled people

We add the personal allowances and premiums together to give the amount of money the government considers you need to live on. We cannot alter them.

How much rent you pay

We can only count your net or basic rent, for help with Housing Benefit.

Many rents include charges for services such as:

water rates

garages

heating, lighting, hot water, fuel for cooking

meals

These charges don't usually qualify for help.

Council Tenants

We can use your full net rent when we work out your Housing Benefit.

Housing Association Tenants

In most cases we can use your full net rent when we work out your Housing Benefit.

If we think your rent is too high we may not use the full net rent to work out your entitlement.

Private Tenants

The rules for private tenants are complex.

The government's aim is that Housing Benefit should only help with rents that are not above average for the area. Usually we can only allow help with rent levels which are not above the average private rents for the district.

There are special rules for single people aged under 25 which means that only rent levels that are at a level for a room in a shared house will receive help.

So we can work out your 'Net Rent' that will be eligible for help, we have to ask the Rent Officer Service to tell us:

if your rent is high

what the average rent is for the district

if you are under 25, what a single room rent would be.

We then use this information to work out your Housing Benefit. If the Benefit you get is less than your rent, you must make up the difference to your landlord from your own income.

If you are thinking about renting a private property, you can ask what rent would qualify for Housing Benefit. This is called a Pre-Tenancy Determination (PTD). You must have the landlord's agreement to apply for a PTD and you must do it before you agree to take on the tenancy.

If you want to know more, contact the Benefits Service or Private Tenants.

Other adults who live with you.

If you have other adults living in your home, they may be expected to pay something towards the rent.

The rules say we must make fixed deductions from the net rent. In some situations, no deductions are made.

If you would like more information, contact the Benefits Service, or "Non-dependant".

What do we pay?

If you get Income Support or JSA (IB) we help with your net rent, less any deduction for other adults living with you.

If you don't get Income Support or JSA (IB), we compare your weekly income against your applicable amount.

If your income is less than your applicable amount, we help with all your net rent, less any deduction for adults living with you.

If your income is more than your applicable amount, the help we give with your net rent (less any deduction for adults) goes down on a sliding scale of 65p for each £1 difference.

How do we pay Housing Benefit?

Council Tenants get a rent rebate. This means they pay us less rent each week. If their benefit changes, the amount of rent they pay changes as well.

Private Tenants and Housing Association Tenants get a rent allowance. We may pay this direct to them or send their landlord a cheque every four weeks if the tenant asks us to.

Changes in Circumstances

While you get Housing Benefit, you must tell us straight away about any changes to the information you gave us on your application form, especially if you stop getting Income Support or JSA (IB).

If you don't tell us straight away about any changes, you may get more benefit than you should. If this happens, we normally ask you to pay it back to us.

Do we tell you how we have worked out your benefit?

NO. But we do write and tell you how much benefit you will get. We also tell you in our letter what information we used to work it out. If you think we used any wrong information, you must tell us at once.

If you want to know more about how we worked out your benefit, you can ask for a written explanation.

What if you disagree with the way we work out your benefit?

If you think we are wrong, ask us to review your claim. To do this write to the Benefits Service, saying you want a review of your case and give all your reasons why. Once we have reviewed your case, we write to you and tell you the outcome.

If you still think we are wrong, you can ask for your case to be looked at by a Review Board. To do this, you should write and tell us that you want a further review of your case and say why.

If you want to know more about Review Board appeals, please contact the Benefits Service.

Can you get any other financial help?

Council Tax Benefits

Council Tax Benefit is paid to people on a low income who are liable for the Council Tax.

It is worked out in a similar way to Housing Benefit. You can claim it using the same Benefit Application form that you use to claim Housing Benefit.

If you want to know more about Council Tax Benefit, please contact the Benefits Service, or Council Tax Benefit.

Freeline Social Security

For more information on Social Security benefits, for people with disabilities there is a free telephone enquiry service: 0800 88 22 00.

Where can you get help and advice?

If you want advice or more information if you have claimed Housing Benefit, please contact the Benefits Section wither in person or by telephoning (01932) 425388.

We will be happy to help you.

Local Housing Allowance from April 2008

Information on Local Housing Allowance (LHA), and answers questions you might have about the new scheme.