Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit is a means tested social security benefit in the United Kingdom that is intended to help with the costs of rent. 

Rent rebates, as they were called, started in the 1930s when council houses were built to clear slums. The rents were often to high for the poor people who had lived in the slums. Local councils made their own arrangements. The first national system started in 1972. It covered rates as well as rent. For people in private housing it was called rent allowance.  People who got Supplementary Benefit had all their rent paid. People who had more money than that still got some help.  By 1983 about 30% of the population were getting Housing Benefit.  After 1986 it was lined up with the rules for Income Support.  

The cost of housing for low-income households has risen a lot.  The cost of Housing Benefit rose from 0.2% of GDP in 1980-81 to 1.0% in 2012-13.   In 2015 £9.3 billion was paid to private landlords. 

From 2019 housing benefit was moved into Universal Credit except for people above State Pension age and people living in supported, sheltered or temporary housing.

in 2022 2 million private renting households, 38% of the total, were getting help with rent from either Universal Credit or Housing Benefit.

 Local Housing Allowance 
Private tenants can only claim for a rent up the level of the Local Housing Allowance where they live. This is based on private market rents being paid by tenants in a Broad Rental Market Area.  Local Housing Allowance  started in 2008. There are rules about number of bedrooms a household can claim for.  They do not apply to pensioners.  

From April 2011 claimants could only  claim a rent based on the 30th percentile of rent in their area. Single people under 35 could only claim for the cost of a shared room.  care leavers aged under 22, some people who have a disability and over 25s who have spent at least three months living in hostel accommodation, can sometimes claim for a self-contained one bedroom flat . The maximum payable under LHA was also set to £400 per week, or £20,800 per annum.  The Local Housing Allowance was fixed in April 2020 but not changed since then as rents increased. In February 2023 in Wales out of 2,638 private properties advertised for rent only 32 had rent under the allowance. 

In  2023 the Chancellor announced that the Local Housing Allowance would be re-pegged to the 30th percentile of local rents in April 2024, but it would then be frozen again.

Housing benefit is also limited by the benefit cap, which has not been increased..

 References 

Category:Social security in the United Kingdom
Category:Housing in the United Kingdom