Housing benefit how long it takes

You will be notified of your Universal Credit housing costs amount and payments through your online account. You can only get help with mortgage payments if you have been claiming Universal Credit for 39 weeks or more, with no breaks or earned income in that time.

Earned income can include earnings from paid work or, for example, statutory sick pay or tax rebates. If you have moved to Universal Credit within one month of another benefit ending, time spent on the first benefit counts towards the 39 weeks. It is important to understand that you will not be eligible for help with mortgage payments on your own home if you receive earned income. If you start receiving earned income whilst you are getting help with mortgage payments, this help will stop.

If you have a break in your claim or receive earned income you will need to claim Universal Credit for a further 39 weeks with no breaks or earned income before you can receive help with mortgage payments. Read more about support for mortgage interest. A shared ownership scheme is usually provided by housing associations where you part rent and part buy your home.

You normally have to pay a mortgage amount and a rent amount. If you get help with this, your Universal Credit housing costs payment will include help towards your rent amount with any help towards your mortgage interest usually being paid direct to your mortgage lender.

Some people are expected to pay a service charge on their rented property, in addition to their normal monthly rent. If you have to pay a service charge this will be shown on your service charge statement from your landlord.

Universal Credit can help towards this cost, but you will need to show evidence of any service charges that you have to pay. The amount you receive towards your housing costs may be reduced if your home has spare bedrooms. If you pay rent to a local authority, council or housing association you will get your full rent as part of your Universal Credit payment. This is known as Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy.

Your Universal Credit housing costs may also be reduced if someone aged 21 or more lives with you who is not a dependant. If you pay rent to a private landlord the amount of Universal Credit housing costs you receive will be worked out by looking at the number of people who live in your home. So if you have spare bedrooms you will only get housing costs to cover a smaller property. The amount you get is set by the Local Housing Allowance rate in your area.

There are a number of circumstances which allow for an additional bedroom, such as where a member of the household is unable to share due to disabilities or where someone requires and receives overnight care on a regular basis providing they meet the qualifying criteria. If you live in temporary accommodation and make a new Universal Credit claim, your payment will not include an amount to help towards your housing.

You will need to claim Housing Benefit from the local authority who placed you in temporary accommodation to get help with your housing costs.

You can still receive Universal Credit to help with your other costs. If you already receive help with temporary accommodation housing costs through Universal Credit this will continue until there is a change to the amount of rent you pay. If that happens you will need to claim Housing Benefit as well as Universal Credit. Instead you can claim Housing Benefit from your local council. This will be the case even if the rest of your money comes from Universal Credit.

In Scotland all landlords must register their properties with the local authority. If your landlord has not done this for your property you can still get Universal Credit housing costs, but you will need to let your local authority know about it.

You can also speak to your work coach for more help. If you do not live with a partner, the most you can usually get is based on the cost of renting a room in a shared house in your area, even if you do not live in shared housing.

There are circumstances in which you may be able to receive higher housing payments, for example if you are responsible for a child, have a disability, or are a care leaver. See this full list for circumstances where higher housing payments may be allowed. Talk to your case manager or contact Universal Credit for more information. If you live with someone who is 21 or older who is not your partner, your housing payment will usually be reduced. Changes to your circumstances could mean that the amount you get towards your housing costs will change.

If you are having difficulty paying your rent and you are not sure if you will be entitled to full Housing Benefit, try to keep making payments at a level you can afford, but be sure to keep your landlord informed. If you fall into rent arrears your landlord could take legal action against you to evict you. If this happens and your landlord is the council or housing association, before starting court action they must follow special pre-action rules , which are designed to protect you from being evicted whilst waiting for a claim to be processed.

Get advice quickly if this is happening to you. You should phone or visit the Housing Benefit department and check that they have got your form and all the information that they require to process your claim.

Ask for the name of the person that you are speaking to. You should take a note of their name, the date that you spoke to them, and what they said. Keep this in a safe place with the receipts for your form and your information.

If you are a council or housing association tenant in rent arrears, ask your housing officer to help chase your claim. Unfortunately, forms do get lost in the post and in council offices. If this happens, you will have to fill in another form and try to provide the information required again. If you have receipts for the form or the information you handed in already, include these with the form.

Your benefit should be paid from the Monday after you handed in your first form. If you cannot prove that you handed in your first form, you may not get benefit until the date you handed the second form in. If they do not believe you, contact an adviser.

If you have not received a payment within 14 days of handing in your form and you have provided all the information required, you should be entitled to a stop-gap payment while you are waiting for your claim to be processed.

It cannot be paid if you are a council tenant. This does not always happen, so you or your landlord may have to remind your council to make a payment. Once your claim is assessed, any difference between your Housing Benefit entitlement and the amount of Housing Benefit paid on account will either be refunded or reclaimed from you. In some cases, the council may tell you that your claim has been dropped, cancelled or made defective. If they tell you that your claim has been dropped, you should complain and demand a decision.

If the decision is then negative, you can take steps to challenge it. UK We use some essential cookies to make this website work. Accept additional cookies Reject additional cookies View cookies. Hide this message. Home Benefits Benefits and financial support if you're on a low income. Housing Benefit. Print entire guide. Brexit Check what you need to do. Explore the topic Benefits and financial support if you're on a low income Council housing and housing association.