How much Housing Benefit can I get?

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Housing Benefit is a ‘means tested benefit’ - which means that if you are eligible, the amount of benefit you get will depend on your personal circumstances.

£16,000 capital limit

If you have more than £16,000 in savings and capital (second home, bonds etc.), you are not entitled to Housing Benefit, unless you or your partner get Guaranteed Pension Credit.

Housing Benefit calculator

Calculating benefits is very complex as every family’s circumstances are different. We cannot tell you how much benefit you will be entitled to until we have received a completed application form and assessed your claim, however if you would like an estimate please use the benefits calculator on Direct.gov.

How Housing Benefit is calculated

This is what we do to calculate your benefit:

1. We work out your maximum rent

If you are a council tenant

If you rent from the council or a Registered Social Landlord (which includes most Housing Associations) your maximum rent is normally the rent you are charged, minus any ineligible costs such as fuel, meals or laundry.

If you rent from a private landlord or letting agency

The way we work out your maximum rent depends on when you started claiming Housing Benefit.

• If you are making a new claim for Housing Benefit, have changed address or have had a break in your Housing Benefit claim of at least one week, your maximum rent will be worked out under the Local Housing Allowance scheme.
• If your claim started before 7 April 2008 and you have not changed address, your maximum rent is worked out by the Rent Officer.

2. We work out your ‘applicable amount’

Your ‘applicable amount ’is the minimum amount of money the government says it should cost you and your family to live each week.  It is made up of a personal allowance for you and your partner, allowances for dependant children, and extra amounts (usually called "Premiums") for disability, age, single parents and families.

3. We compare your ‘applicable amount’ against your income

We compare the amount of income and capital you and your partner have against the amount of money the government says your family needs to live on (applicable amount).  

If your family income is less than the applicable amount, you will normally get your maximum rent paid.

If your family income is more than the applicable amount, we will reduce the amount of Housing Benefit we will pay towards your rent.  If your family income is much higher than your applicable amount, you may not qualify for any benefit.

If you receive Income Support (IS), income related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or income based Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), you will normally get your maximum Housing Benefit

4. Do you have any non-dependents?

If there are other adults (aged 18 or over, including your children) apart from your partner living with you, we expect them to pay towards the running costs of your household.  These adults are called non-dependants.

We will look at the income and circumstances of these non-dependants and make deductions to your Housing Benefit if appropriate. We call this a non-dependant deduction.  It is equivalent to the amount of money this adult would be expected to pay towards the running costs of the household.  You can choose not to charge this adult for living in your house but we will still take the non-dependant deduction from your Housing Benefit.

If you have any questions about claiming Housing Benefit please contact your local office.

Last updated: 23 January 2012