Glossary · UK
What is Housing Benefit?
A means-tested benefit that helps pay rent, now largely replaced by Universal Credit except for pensioners and people in supported or temporary accommodation.
Full Definition
Housing Benefit is a means-tested benefit, administered by local councils, that helps people on a low income pay their rent. Since the rollout of Universal Credit, Housing Benefit is closed to most new working-age claimants, who instead claim help with rent through the housing element of Universal Credit. Housing Benefit remains available for people who have reached State Pension age (and are not part of a mixed-age couple already on Universal Credit), and for people living in supported, sheltered or temporary accommodation, where it continues to run alongside Universal Credit for other needs. The amount paid depends on income, savings, rent level (capped by the Local Housing Allowance for private tenants), household size and the number of bedrooms needed, with a reduction -- often called the bedroom tax or under-occupancy charge -- applied to working-age social tenants judged to have more bedrooms than their household size requires. Housing Benefit is paid either directly to the tenant or, in some cases, straight to the landlord.