Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support

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Registered Social Landlords and rent restrictions

Registered Social Landlords and Rent Restrictions

If you pay rent to a registered social landlord and you are entitled to claim Housing Benefit, the amount of Housing Benefit we can pay will depend on how many people live in your household. The amount of your rent that Housing Benefit can be calculated on is reduced if you have more bedrooms than you need.

If your house has more bedrooms than your household needs, the eligible rent reduction is set out below:

  • 14% for those with one spare bedroom
  • 25% for those with two or more spare bedrooms

This is called the Spare Room Subsidy but is commonly called the “bedroom tax.”

The size criteria allows one bedroom for each person or couple living as part of the household with the following exceptions:

  • children under 16 of the same gender are expected to share
  • children under 10 are expected to share regardless of gender
  • a disabled tenant or partner who needs a non-resident overnight carer will be allowed an extra room

Please note that the Spare Room Subsidy does not apply to Pension aged claims.