Housing benefit general information

Anyone who has a legally enforceable liability to pay rent in order to occupy their home is eligible to claim Housing Benefit. In general, you will not qualify if:

• You are required to claim Universal Credit instead of Housing Benefit
• You are not resident at the property (except for certain temporary absences)
• You rent a property you previously owned (except in certain, limited circumstances)
• You rent a former joint home from an ex-partner
• You have responsibility for the landlord’s child
• You pay rent to a close relative who lives with you
• You have a mortgage
• Your agreement is not on a commercial basis
• The liability was created to take advantage of the Housing Benefit Scheme
• You have recently come to live in the U.K. from abroad (there are exceptions to this rule)
• You are a full time student (although there are exceptions to this rule)
• You have more than £16,000 in capital (unless you are a pensioner on Pension Credit Guarantee Credit)

How is it paid?

If you rent your home from a private landlord or Housing Association, your benefit is normally paid directly to you by BACS every 2 weeks. In some circumstances we may pay benefit directly to your landlord by BACS every 4 weeks. Payments by cheque are not normally available.

If you rent your home from the Council, your benefit is paid directly to your rent account each week.

To provide your bank details for payment of Housing Benefit please complete the online form below:

Provide account details for housing benefit payments

How much will I be paid?

For most private tenants the maximum level of benefit payable will be based on the Local Housing Allowance rate for the area and the number of bedrooms you require. The actual rent you pay may be more than this amount. You will be responsible for making up any shortfall between the actual rent charged and the amount of any Housing Benefit paid.

For Council and Housing Association tenants, the maximum level of benefit payable is normally your gross rent minus any ineligible service charges, such as charges for water and fuel. From April 2013 the government introduced social sector size criteria based on the same rules as Local Housing Allowance.

If you have one spare room a 14% reduction will be applied to the rent used to assess your benefit, if you have two or more spare rooms, your eligible rent will be reduced by 25%. You are responsible for making up any shortfall between the actual rent charged and the amount of any Housing Benefit that you are paid.