Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit helps people pay their rent.

Anyone who is not eligible for Universal Credit and has to pay rent for their home can claim. It does not matter whether your landlord is a housing association or a private individual or company.

Boarders, lodgers and people in hostels and bed and breakfast accommodation can also claim.

You will not be eligible if you:

pay rent to a close relative who lives in the same property, ie your parents or
have over £16,000 in capital (unless you're in receipt of guarantee pension credit). This includes savings, investments and some property and land.

Claim Housing Benefit

You can claim Housing Benefit online using our Benefits Claim Form.

Housing Benefit Payments

There's no set amount of Housing Benefit and what you get will depend on whether you rent privately or from a council or Housing Association.

Council and Social Housing

How much Housing Benefit you receive will depend on:

your eligible rent
if you have a spare room
your household income - including benefits, pensions and savings (over £6,000)
your circumstances, for example the age of people in the house or if someone has a disability

Private rent

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is used to work out Housing Benefit for tenants who rent privately. How much you get is usually based on:

where you live
your household size
your income - including benefits, pensions and savings (over £6,000)
your circumstances

More information is available on our Local Housing Allowance page.

Single and Under 35

Anyone under 35 is only able to claim Housing Benefit on a shared accommodation rate to help with their rent (rather than being able to claim for self-contained one-bedroom accommodation).

This means you're only entitled to the lower rate of Housing Benefit for a room in shared accommodation if all of the following apply:

you're a single person
you're occupying a one-bedroom self contained accommodation in the private rented sector
you're not covered by any of the exemptions on sharing accommodation