How much housing benefit will I get?

We use amounts set each year by the government called personal allowances and premiums to work out how much you need to live on.

Personal allowances and premiums depend on your age, the people in your household including their ages and whether they have a disability, how many dependent children you have and whether anyone needs a carer.

We add up the personal allowance and premiums relevant to you and this is called your 'applicable amount'. If your income is greater than your applicable amount, the difference between these two amounts is called 'excess income'. The housing benefit rules say that you must pay 65 per cent of this excess income towards your rent. So for every £1 of income above the applicable amount, the weekly housing benefit is reduced by 65p.

We will look at any savings you (and your partner if you have one) may have. If you have £6,000 or less we will ignore them.

If you have more than £6,000 but not more than £16,000 we will take into account £1 per week for every £250 over £6,000.

If you have reached the qualifying age for Pension Credit, we will ignore the first £10,000 and take into account £1 per week for every £500 over £10,000.

If you have savings of more than £16,000, you won’t normally be able to get any housing benefit (unless you receive the guarantee credit element of Pension Credit).

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is the name for housing benefit for most tenants of private landlords who claim housing benefit after April 2008.

If you rent from a private landlord and are putting in a new claim or are moving home, the maximum amount of housing benefit you can get depends on the LHA rate relevant to you. This is based on where you live and the number of bedrooms you need.

The rate is the maximum amount of housing benefit you can get. The amount of housing benefit you actually get may be less than this depending on your income and savings, your personal circumstances and if you have other adults living in your home.

Your housing benefit may also be reduced if the amount of benefit you get is over the benefit cap.

Claims made before 7 April 2008

If you rent from a private landlord, claimed before 7 April 2008 and haven’t moved home since, the Valuation Office Agency decides your maximum housing benefit. This means that a rent officer will look at all the details of your home including the number of rooms, the size, rent charged and the general levels of rents in the area to decide your maximum housing benefit.

The amount set by the rent officer is the maximum amount of housing benefit you can get. The amount you actually get may be less than this depending on your income and savings, your personal circumstances and if you have other adults living in your home.

Your housing benefit may also be reduced if the amount of benefit you get is over the benefit cap.

If you are of pension age

If you are of pension age and rent your home from the council or a housing association, your maximum housing benefit will usually be the same as the rent you are charged. The amount you actually get may be less than this depending on your income and savings, your personal circumstances and if you have other adults living in your home.

You may also get less if you have any services included in your rent for which we are not allowed to pay housing benefit, such as heating and hot water.

If you are of working age

If you are of working age and rent your home from the council or a housing association, your maximum housing benefit will be the same as your rent, unless you have more bedrooms than the government says you need for the size of your household.

The amount of housing benefit you actually get may be less than this depending on your income and savings, your personal circumstances and if you have other adults living in your home.

You may also get less if you have any services included in your rent for which we are not allowed to pay housing benefit, such as heating and hot water, or if the amount of benefit you get is over the benefit cap.

In April 2013, the government introduced a size criteria which limits how many bedrooms you will get housing benefit for if you are renting from:

• a local authority
• a registered housing association, or
• any other registered social landlord.

You are affected if you:

• live in a council or housing association property, and
• have more bedrooms than you need under the rules, and
• are of working age (under state pension credit age)

The benefit 'size criteria' allows one bedroom for:

• a couple
• a person over 16
• two children of the same sex aged under 16
• two children of any sex who are younger than 10
• any other single child under 16.

You may also be allowed an additional bedroom if:

• you or your partner need overnight care from someone who doesn't normally live with you
• you are an approved foster carer and either have a foster child or children living with you or you are waiting for a child/children to be placed with you
• your children are unable to share a bedroom because of severe disabilities – we will assess your individual circumstances and decide where it is inappropriate for the children to be expected to share a room.

If you have an adult child or children who are away from home serving as a member of the armed forces, a bedroom will continue to be allowed for them as long as they have an intention to return to your property.

If you have more bedrooms than you need:

If you have more bedrooms than the government says you need, your housing benefit is reduced. This will be shown on your notification letter.

The amount allowed for rent and any service charges is reduced by:

• 14% if you have one extra bedroom, or
• 25% if you have two or more extra bedrooms.

There are some circumstances where the size criteria rules are not applied:

Non-mainstream accommodation

These are mooring charges for houseboats and site charges for caravans and mobile homes as well as various 'excluded tenancies' such as regulated tenancies.

Temporary accommodation

Any claimant who is placed in temporary accommodation by the council because they are homeless or to prevent homelessness.

Exempt accommodation

The size criteria rules are not applied to those in supported 'exempt' accommodation. This is a particular type of supported accommodation.

I share care of my children with my ex-partner, are we both entitled to a room for them?

Where parents who don't live together have shared care of their children, the children are treated as living with the parent who is treated as responsible for them and provides their main home.

For someone to be treated as responsible for a child or young person, the child or young person must normally be living with them. If a child or young person spends equal amounts of time in different households, or there is a question as to who they normally live with, they are treated as living with the person who is receiving Child Benefit for them.

The parent who is not considered to provide their main home is not entitled to receive housing benefit for an extra room for their child/children. If this applies to you, and you wish to remain in your current property then you will need to make up the shortfall in rent yourself. You may be able to apply for a discretionary housing payment to help with the shortfall.

Apply for a discretionary housing payment

My house has been adapted to help with my disability. Am I included in the size criteria rules?

Other than the cases stated above there are no exceptions to the size criteria rules. If there is a reason that an extra room is needed you may be able to apply for a discretionary housing payment.

Apply for a discretionary housing payment

My child is away at university, can I keep their room for when they are home in the holidays?

The size criteria rules do not allow for this, unless the absence is temporary (less than 52 weeks for students) and the young person concerned intends to return home.

A non-dependant is normally any adult who lives with you and is not your partner. It is often, but not always, a young person who has finished school and is now living at home and is either at college, university, work, looking for work or unable to work.

In some cases we make a deduction from your housing benefit to represent the contribution the government expects them to make to your household. This is called a non-dependant deduction.

The non-dependant deduction is taken from the maximum housing benefit before we work out how much help we can give you with the remaining amount.

No deduction is taken if the non-dependant is:

• 16 or 17 years old
• a full-time student
• staying temporarily but has a home elsewhere, for example visiting a relative
• in hospital for more than 52 weeks. Separate periods in hospital are added together and are treated as a single period if they are separated by intervals of 28 days or less.

The maximum rate for Local Housing Allowance is the four-bedroom LHA rate. If your family needs five or more bedrooms, you will be restricted to the four bedroom rate.

We will decide how many rooms according to the housing benefit rules:

• if you live in one room and share some facilities (for example a kitchen or bathroom) with other people, you will only receive the rate for shared accommodation
• if you are under 35 and live on your own, you will only be entitled to the rate for shared accommodation
• single claimants aged 35 and over, care leavers aged 22 and under, and childless couples will qualify for the one bedroom rate of LHA, but if you choose to live in shared accommodation you will only receive the rate for shared
• if you are severely disabled, or live with a severely disabled partner, and have no dependent children, your benefit will be based on the one bedroom LHA rate.

If the above categories do not apply to you, we will work out your number of rooms as one bedroom for each of the following:

• a couple
• a person over 16
• two children of the same sex aged under 16
• two children of any sex who are younger than 10
• any other single child under 16.

You may also be allowed an additional bedroom if:

• you or your partner need overnight care from someone who doesn't normally live with you
• you are an approved foster carer and either have a foster child or children living with you or you are waiting for a child/children to be placed with you
• your children are unable to share a bedroom because of severe disabilities – we will assess your individual circumstances and decide where it is inappropriate for the children to be expected to share a room.

Please note if you have an adult child or children who are away from home serving as a member of the Armed Forces, a bedroom will continue to be allowed for them as long as they have an intention to return to your property.

You can use the online LHA bedroom calculatorto check your bedroom entitlement.

The maximum benefit you will receive is the LHA rate for the size of your household in your area. If your rent is more than this figure, you will need to make up this shortfall yourself.

If you are having difficulties, you may be able to apply for a discretionary housing payment.

• Apply for a discretionary housing payment

The maximum housing benefit you can receive will not be more than your rent.

Local Housing Allowance is mainly paid to claimants direct. The provision in Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 for claimants to choose to have their allowance paid direct to their landlord has been removed.

As a result most claimants will have their LHA paid directly into their bank account and will therefore be responsible for managing their own finances and paying their own rent.

In recognition that some claimants may have difficulty with the responsibility of budgeting for and paying their rent, a system of safeguarding has been put into place.

Being safeguarded means that a decision is made to make payments to the landlord, not the claimant.

Information on when we may pay benefit direct to landlords is detailed in our Safeguard Policy.

Read our Safeguard Policy

For us to make payments direct to the landlord, a direct payment form must be completed.

Complete an application for payments of LHA to be paid to the landlord