RR2 - A guide to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit
Housing Benefit
Your accommodation
The sort of accommodation you live in affects whether or not you can get HB and how it is paid.
Council accommodation
If you pay rent to your council and you qualify for HB, you will get a reduction in your rent (a rent rebate). Council accommodation is not subject to rules about maximum rent.
Private accommodation
If you pay rent to a private landlord or a housing association you can claim a rent allowance. Private rented accommodation, and sometimes housing association accommodation, is subject to rules about the maximum rent. Besides homes rented in the normal way, HB is available to people in the following accommodation:
Crofters [HB Reg 10(1)]
If you are a tenant crofter you can claim HB in the normal way. If you own your croft, HB cannot help you with any mortgage payment. You may get help from Pension Credit, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Rental purchase
This is where you acquire your home by paying rent to the landlord over a fixed period of time. The landlord remains the owner of the property until you make the final payments.
Houseboats
You may be able to get help through HB for your mooring fees or river license fee where this has to be paid for the boat to be in the water, but not for other costs associated with houseboats.
Mobile homes and caravans
You may be able to get help from HB to meet any site fees you have to pay in order to live in your caravan. If you have to pay interest on a loan to buy your caravan you can claim help from Pension Credit, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Charitable almshouses
If you have to make a contribution for living in a charitable almshouse you may be able to get HB.
Mesne profits
If a court has ordered you to pay mesne profits (violent profits in Scotland) you may be able to get HB.
Crown tenants
You are a Crown tenant if you rent your home from:
- a government department
- or someone managing a property on behalf of a government department
- or someone managing a property for the Crown.
You may be able to get a rebate from your landlord under a voluntary scheme – ask your landlord about this.
If you rent your home from the Crown Estates Commissioners, or the Duchy of Cornwall, or the Duchy of Lancaster, you may get help from HB because these are not Crown properties.
Owner occupiers
HB does not help with mortgage repayments. Pension Credit, Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance may help with the cost of your mortgage interest payments.
Long-leaseholders
If the lease on your home was originally made for more than 21 years, you cannot claim Housing Benefit (HB). Pension Credit, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance may help with any rent, ground rent or service charges you have to pay.
You can claim HB if you have a long lease on a shared ownership basis with a housing authority or a housing association. This is sometimes known as equity sharing. Under shared ownership people buy part of their home and pay rent for the other part. You may also be able to get help from Pension Credit, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance for any mortgage interest you have to pay.
Co-ownership schemes
Co-ownership schemes are run by housing associations and members buy shares in order to live in the property. The payments they make include an amount towards the association’s capital and interest costs, incurred in building the accommodation. When membership of the association ceases, co-owners receive a lump sum directly or indirectly related to the value of their accommodation, although they may have to serve a minimum period of residence before they receive such a payment. While they live in the accommodation they make payments of ‘rent’ but this is not eligible for HB. Help towards co-owners’ housing costs is available through Pension Credit, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Other accommodation
Care homes
If you live in a care home you are entitled to HB only in exceptional circumstances. However, you may be able to get help towards the housing costs element of your fees and your living expenses through Income Support under the arrangements for Community Care introduced from 1 April 1993. [HB Reg 7]
The exceptional circumstances in which HB may be paid to help with the accommodation element of a home’s fees are:
- if you were living in a residential care or nursing home on 31 March 1993 and were receiving HB to help meet the home’s fees. You can continue to get HB to help meet those fees for as long as you remain in the same home. But if you moved to a different registered residential care or nursing home on or after 1 April 1993 you will not be able to get HB to help meet the home’s fees
- or if you were receiving HB towards the cost of the fees of a registered residential care or nursing home on 29 October 1990. You may be able to get HB to help meet a home’s fees at any time, provided you are not also getting Income Support to help with those costs.
If you are living in an unregistered residential care home run by a body constituted by an Act of Parliament or incorporated by Royal Charter (for example certain Salvation Army homes) you may be able to get help through HB for your accommodation costs, provided you are not also getting Income Support to help with those costs.