housing benefit on pip and universal credit

You can get housing benefit if you:

are liable to pay rent on your normal home;

are on a low income do not have capital or savings above £16,000;

The amount of housing benefit that you get is based on your weekly ‘eligible rent’. This may be less than your actual rent if a restriction applies. Whether a restriction applies, and the nature of the restriction, depends on whether you rent social housing or rent from a private landlord.

If you rent from the local authority, a registered housing association or a private registered provider of social housing, your eligible rent will normally be your actual rent (less any charges that cannot be met by housing benefit, such as charges for a garage, water charges, charges for fuel and meals, and certain service charges). However, if it is considered that you have spare bedrooms, your eligible rent may be reduced.

If you moved or started to claim housing benefit before 7 April 2008, your eligible rent may be restricted to a maximum rate set by a rent officer. For more information, see the Disability Rights Handbook.

If you moved or started to claim housing benefit on or after 7 April 2008, your eligible rent will be restricted to a set amount: the ‘local housing allowance’. For more information, see section 5 below.

If you are of working age and are renting social housing, your eligible rent is reduced if you are considered to have one or more spare bedrooms; this rule is commonly referred to as the ‘bedroom tax’.

Local housing allowance is a standard amount of maximum housing benefit, set according to where you live and who shares your household. It applies if you are renting from a private landlord and you moved or started to claim housing benefit from 7 April 2008. The local housing allowance figure is used whatever the actual amount of your rent. If your local housing allowance is less than your rent, you are expected to make up the shortfall or seek cheaper accommodation.

The local housing allowance that applies in your case is decided by a local authority rent officer, according to the ‘broad rental market area’ where your home is situated, how many people live with you and how many bedrooms they are deemed to need (worked out in a similar way to the ‘bedroom tax’ – see section 4 above).

The ‘broad rental market area’ is the area within which you could reasonably be expected to live, having regard to facilities and services, and including a range of accommodation and tenancy types.

If you (or your partner) are on a means-tested benefit*, your housing benefit will be your weekly eligible rent (see section 3 above), less any amounts for non-dependants living with you (see section 7 below).

If you (and your partner) are not on a means-tested benefit*, your housing benefit will be worked out by comparing your needs with your resources (ie any capital and income you have). The calculation is as follows:

Set amounts for different needs are added together to reach the total amount the law says you need to live on: your ‘applicable amount’. Any income (including any earnings) you have is compared with your applicable amount. If this income is greater than your applicable amount, you have ‘excess income’.

Your housing benefit will be your weekly eligible rent (see section 3 above), less any amounts for non-dependants living with you (see section 7 below) and less 65% of your excess income.

*income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), income-related employment and support allowance (ESA) or the guarantee credit of pension credit

Your applicable amount is made up of the following:

personal allowances;

premiums; and

an additional component.

Personal allowances

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, one of a couple (whether married or living together or a civil partner) or have children.

Premiums

You can get extra amounts in the form of premiums if you meet certain conditions. There are five in all:

carer premium;

disability premium;

disabled child premium;

enhanced disability premium; and

severe disability premium

Additional component

This may be paid if you are claiming main-phase ESA

Capital

You cannot get housing benefit if your (or your partner’s) capital or savings are above an upper limit of £16,000. There is no upper limit if you are getting pension credit guarantee credit.

There is also a lower limit, normally set at £6,000. If your capital is between the lower and upper limits, it is treated as generating income. This is called ‘tariff income’: £1 a week for every £250 (or part of £250) above the lower limit is included as your income in the housing benefit calculation. Different rules may apply if you (or your partner) are over pension credit qualifying age.

The benefit cap

Housing benefit is included in the list of benefits to which the ‘benefit cap’ applies. This cap limits the total weekly benefits that can be claimed.

Non-dependants

Your housing benefit may be reduced if you have a ‘non-dependant’ living with you. A non-dependant is someone who is aged 18 or over who is not your partner or living with you on a commercial basis (eg a sub-tenant or boarder). Typically, an adult son or daughter will be considered to be a non-dependant.

Non-dependant deductions are not made if you or your partner are:

certified as severely sight impaired or blind by a consultant ophthalmologist, or have ceased to be certified in the past 28 weeks

getting disability living allowance care component;

getting personal independence payment daily living component;

getting armed forces independence payment;

getting attendance allowance; or

constant attendance allowance.

There is also no deduction made for a non-dependant if they are under 25 and on income support, income-based JSA, assessment phase income-related ESA or (unless they have any earnings) universal credit. For more about non-dependant deductions,

How do you claim?

You can claim housing benefit at the same time as you claim income support, ESA, JSA or pension credit.

If you are not claiming these benefits, you can claim by phoning your local authority or using their claim form.

The DWP has produced a guide to the claims process at www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/251256/hb-claims-processing-guidance.pdf