If you are on Income Support (IS) because you are not working, or are working for less than 16 hours a week and your pay is being topped up by IS, you will be entitled to Housing Benefit (HB) to cover all of your eligible rent. If you are a council or Housing Association tenant, eligible rent means the actual rent (less any charges for such things as heating or water supply).
If you have a private landlord, either an individual or a company, there may be a shortfall between the rent you have to pay and the eligible rent if the property is considered too large for your needs or the rent is considered to be unreasonably high for the area.
If you want to find out whether there will be any difference between your actual and eligible rent before you decide to enter into or renew a tenancy agreement, you can apply to your local authority for a pre-tenancy determination. A deduction may also be made from eligible rent if you have a non-dependant such as a grown up child or other relative living with you; the amount of the deduction will depend on their income.
You will qualify for an extended payment of housing benefit if you have been on IS for 26 weeks or more and you have come off IS because:
You can keep the same rate of HB for the first four weeks of work. This is not affected by your earnings or any Working Tax Credit (WTC) you claim and doesn't have to be repaid.
Other circumstances There are other circumstances in which you might be entitled to some HB. You may be:
- working for 16 hours or more (and possibly claiming Working Tax Credit), or
- not working, or working for less than 16 hours but not entitled to IS because of your earnings or other income such as child maintenance.
The calculation The law expects people on low incomes to contribute 65% of available income towards their rent. The council pays the rest of the eligible rent through HB (see above for the meaning of eligible rent and how to find out your eligible rent before entering into or renewing a tenancy agreement). To reach a figure for available income, the calculation includes earnings and any tax credits you receive but excludes certain protected income. Protected income is made up as follows:
- Your Income Support applicable amount (the amount the law says you need to live on each week)
- The first £25 a week of earnings
- The first £15 a week of maintenance
- £14.50 if you are working for at least 16 hours a week
- Up to either £175 a week for one child or £300 for two or more of registered childcare costs for children under 15, or 16 if they are disabled.
Savings or capital over £3,000 will affect the level of benefit and no HB will be paid if you have savings or capital over £16,000.
Claiming benefit If you are making a claim for Income Support (IS) or Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) and also want to claim HB, you should fill in HCTB1 which comes with the IS or JSA claim form. HCTB1 should be returned to your local authority. Your local authority may require you to fill in its own form, so you will need to check with them.
If you are not claiming IS or JSA at the same time as HB, you need to make a claim direct to your local authority on a form that can be obtained from council offices, local advice centres and some libraries. You should try to include all the information asked for, but if necessary can send it at a later date, so don't delay because you haven't got all the wage slips that are being asked for. If it is clear that you qualify for HB, a payment should be made within 14 days of your producing all the required evidence. Complain to the council if this does not happen. Your claim will be reviewed annually, but you must also report any change of circumstances when it happens; this is particularly important if you have a change in your entitlement to tax credits as well as your earnings or other income.
Discretionary housing payments These are extra payments that can be paid to you by the council to help meet your rent or council tax liability. You do not have a 'right' to discretionary housing payments. They are paid from a cash-limited budget allocated to your council by the government and are claimed separately from HB and Council Tax Benefit (CTB).
The council can make payments if you are entitled to HB or CTB and you appear to require some financial assistance in addition to your HB or CTB to meet your housing costs.
Councils have discretion whether to make the payments, what amount to pay (within certain limits) and over what period payments can be made. They cannot make payments if your need for financial assistance arises, for example, because you cannot afford water and sewage charges, or are in rent arrears, or another benefit has been reduced, suspended or stopped.
Local Housing Allowances For private tenants, HB has been replaced by standard Local Housing Allowances (LHAs) in nine pilot areas (Blackpool, Lewisham, Coventry, Teignbridge, Brighton & Hove, Edinburgh, North East Lincolnshire, Conwy and Leeds). In each local authority, the LHAs are based on the area and family size and this is the amount that will be paid regardless of the actual rent being charged by a landlord. If the rent is lower than the LHA the tenant will keep the difference; if it is higher the tenant will have to top it up from their own pocket.
The aim of LHAs is to encourage tenants to seek cheaper accommodation and to speed up the administration of housing benefits. Further pilots have been announced to start in April 2005 (Wandsworth, East Riding of Yorkshire), May 2005 (St Helens, Argyll and Bute), June 2005 (South Norfolk, Norwich, Pembrokeshire), and July 2005 (Guildford, Salford), and subject to evaluation the scheme will eventually be extended throughout the country.
April 2005
On Income Support 
