Housing benefit (HB) helps people pay their rent. It can also be known as rent rebate or rent allowance. HB does not cover help in repaying your mortgage. In nearly all cases, local authorities run the HB scheme.

The general rule is that, to get HB, you must be personally liable to pay the rent on your home.

You can only get HB on one home at a time, which is the dwelling 'normally occupied' by yourself as the home and any members of your family.

Your rent may include things like water charges, fuel, meals or other services; or you may rent a garage with your home. As detailed below, HB cannot be awarded towards all of these things. The HB calculation is based on your weekly 'eligible rent'. This means:

• The actual rent on your home.
• Plus in some cases the rent on a garage, minus amounts for water, fuel, meals and certain other services.

WHO CAN GET HB?

You can get HB if you satisfy all the following conditions:

• You are not excluded from getting HB.
• You are liable to pay rent on your normal home.
• Your capital is no more than £16,000 - with the exception of some pensioners.
• You are on income support (IS), income-based jobseeker's allowance (JSA), the guarantee credit of pension credit, or have a fairly low income.
• You claim and provide the information requested.

PEOPLE WHO CANNOT GET HOUSING BENEFIT

If you are in any of the following groups, you are excluded altogether from getting HB.

• Care leavers under 18 - if social services are responsible for accommodating you. (There are rare exceptions: seek further advice if you are in this situation).
• People in care homes - There are rare exceptions.
• 'Persons from abroad' or 'subject to immigration control' - This does not cover every non-UK national, but it does cover some UK nationals who do not habitually reside in the UK.
• Many full-time students - Full-time students cannot get HB unless they fall within certain groups. Many students with disabilities do, however, fall within one of those groups. If you are in a couple and only one of you is a full-time student, the other one can get HB for you both.
• Members of religious orders - if you are maintained by the order.

HOUSING COSTS THAT HB CANNOT MEET.

You cannot get HB towards any of the following (although some of them may be met by income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance or pension credit).

• Any payments you make on your home if you own it or have a long lease (over 21 years).
• Any payments you make in a 'co-ownership scheme' where, if you left, you would be entitled to a sum based on the value of your home.
• Rent if you are a Crown tenant (there is a separate scheme for Crown tenants). But tenants of the Crown Estate Commissioners and the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster can get HB.
• Hire purchase or credit sale agreements.
• Conditional sale agreements (unless for land).
• Payments on a tent.

SERVICE CHARGES:

General Conditions

The rules for several types of service charge are given below, saying whether they can be taken into account as part of your eligible rent. But even when they can, there are two further conditions.

• The amount of the charge must be reasonable for the service provided. If it is not reasonable, the unreasonable part is deducted.
• Payment of the charge must be a condition of occupying your home - whether from the beginning of your letting agreement or from later on. If it is not a condition of occupying the home, the whole charge is deducted.

OTHER SERVICES

Cleaning and window cleaning - A charge for cleaning and window cleaning of communal areas is included in your eligible rent; so is a charge for exterior window cleaning if neither you nor anyone in your household can do it. A charge for any other cleaning and window cleaning (estimated if necessary) is deducted.

Furniture and household equipment - A charge for these is included in your eligible rent as long as your landlord has not agreed that they will become part of your personal property.

General support charges - Before April 2003, 'support charges' could be included in your eligible rent if you lived in supported accommodation. This has now ceased but you may be able to get help from 'supporting people'.

Medical, nursing and personal care - A charge for any of these (estimated if necessary) is deducted. (Even before April 2003, these could not be met by HB.)

Communal or accommodation-related services - Most charges for these are included in your eligible rent. Examples are: TV/radio aerial and relay (with exceptions for satellite or cable), refuse removal, lifts, communal telephones, entry phones, children's play areas, garden maintenance necessary for the provision of adequate accommodation and communal laundry facilities.

Day-to-day living expenses, etc - Charges for these (estimated if necessary) are deducted. Examples are: TV/radio rental and licence, laundering (ie if washing is done for you), transport, sports facilities, leisure items, and any other service not related to the provision of adequate accommodation.

HOW YOUR HB IS PAID

If you pay rent to the Council

Your HB is awarded as a rebate towards your rent account - which is why it is also called a 'rent rebate'. In other words, the rent you have to pay will be reduced. This will also apply if you pay your rent to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

HB for everyone else

Your HB is paid in a cheque, giro, etc - which is why it is also called a 'rent allowance'. Your local authority must take into account your 'reasonable needs and convenience' in choosing the method of payment: so it should not insist on paying you by crossed cheques if you do not have a bank account.

Your first payment of HB

Your local authority should make your first payment within 14 days of when they receive your properly completed claim or, 'if that is not reasonably practicable, as soon as possible thereafter'. This must be either the correct amount of your entitlement or, if that is not yet known, an estimated amount, known as a 'payment on account' - which will be adjusted when the correct amount is known.

You should not have to ask the authority for a prompt first payment; though of course if you do not get one, it is sensible to get in touch with them and remind them of their duties. They do not, however, have to make a prompt first payment if you have not supplied the information and documents they have requested, unless you can show that your failure to do so is 'reasonable' (eg if the delay in providing these is outside your control).

Paying your HB to your Landlord

Your HB is paid to your landlord, instead of to you, in the following main circumstances:

• If you request or consent to this; or
• If it is in your or your family's best interests; or
• If your landlord requests it and can show your local authority that you have at least 8 weeks of rent arrears (6 weeks in Northern Ireland).

In the first 2 cases, your local authority does not have to agree. In the third case, they have to agree (until the rent arrears reduce to below 8 weeks) unless there are overriding reasons for refusing, or if the landlord is deemed not to be a 'fit and proper' person to receive payment. Your local authority can also choose to pay your first payment of HB to your landlord (regardless of whether you agree) if they consider this appropriate.

ASKING THE AUTHORITY TO REVISE THEIR DECISION

You have the right to ask your local authority to revise their decision on almost all matters relating to your HB claim (for example, how much you qualify for, whether you should have to repay an overpayment, and so on).

If your letter arrives within the 'dispute period' (see below), your local authority must revise their decision, taking account of what you say. They should give you a written notice saying whether they are changing or sticking to their original decision, and giving their reasons. But if you were requesting a reconsideration of a maximum rent fixed by the rent officer, it will take longer because it will be sent to the rent officer to consider.

APPEALS TO A TRIBUNAL

Either instead of, or after, asking your local authority to reconsider their decision (see above), you can appeal to an independent appeal tribunal.

EXCEPTIONS

There is no right of appeal to a tribunal about:

• Most administrative decisions about claims and payments of HB, although you can appeal to a tribunal about when your HB should begin and whether your claim should be backdated.
• Your maximum rent if the rent officer or Northern Ireland Housing Executive fixed one for your home.
• Discretionary housing payments.

In each case, though, you can ask the authority to revise their decision.

THE DISPUTE PERIOD

Whether you are asking the authority to revise a decision or asking for an appeal, your letter should reach your local authority within one calendar month of the day they sent out the notice about the decision.

If you have asked for a written statement, the time they took to deal with that is ignored in adding up the month. For example, if you asked for a written statement in late July, 10 days after your local authority's notice was sent out, you have 21 days left from the date they reply to write requesting them to revise the decision.

Also, your local authority (or the tribunal, in the case of an appeal) can agree to extend the one-month time limit if you have a good reason for your delay. If you do have a good reason for delaying more than a month, explain this when you write in, as otherwise this may not be taken into account.

In all cases, 13 months is the absolute limit for asking for the decision to be changed.

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