Guidance

About this guidance and contents

Published 15 February 2019

Amendment 14

To:

All holder of the Housing Benefit (HB) Subsidy Guidance Manual.

Subject:

Amendment 14 to the HB Subsidy Guidance Manual.

Content:

This amendment gives details of the subsidy arrangements for the relevant year.

Action:

This is a full reprint of the HB Subsidy Guidance Manual. It is being published online, on the GOV.UK website.

The first year for which this annual should be used when claiming subsidy is 2018 to 2019 and is referred to in this manual as ‘the relevant year’.

Record of amendments

1. Amendments are serially numbered so that holders can check they have received the full series.
2. Incorporate amendments immediately and record that you have done so below.

Serial number	Initials	Date	Serial number	Initials	Date
1	Incorporated	December 2005	19
2	Incorporated	October 2006	20
3	Incorporated	February 2008	21
4	Incorporated	April 2009	22
5	Incorporated	May 2010	23
6	Incorporated	February 2011	24
7	Incorporated	March 2012	25
8	Incorporated	March 2013	26
9	Incorporated	March 2014	27
10	Incorporated	March 2015	28
11	Incorporated	April 2016	29
12	Incorporated	March 2017	30
13	Incorporated	March 2018	31
14	Incorporated	March 2019	32
15			33
16			34
17			35
18			36

Abbreviations

ADMIN	Administrative
ASHE	Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings
B+B	Board and Lodgings
BRMA	Broad Rental Market Area
CRR	Claim Related Rent
CTB	Council Tax Benefit
DCLG	Department for Communities and Local Government
DRI	Disproportionate Rent Increase
DWP	Department for Work and Pensions
EP	Extended Payments
ESA	Employment and Support Allowance
ESA(C)	Employment and Support Allowance Contributory Based
ESA(IB)	Employment and Support Allowance Income Based
HA	Housing Association
HAL	Housing Association Leasing
HAMA	Housing Association Managing Agents
HAT	Housing Action Trust
HB	Housing Benefit
HMRC	Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
HRA	Housing Revenue Account
HRAS	Housing Revenue Account Subsidy
IB	Incapacity Benefit
IOW	In and Out of Work
IRL	Indicative Rent Level
IS	Income Support
JSA(IB)	Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
LA	Local Authority
LAA	Local Authority Association
LCA	Labour Cost Adjustment
LHA	Local Housing Allowance
MHCLG	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
PoA	Payment on Account
RCA	Rates Cost Adjustment
RSL	Registered Social Landlord
SDA	Severe Disablement Allowance
SHBE	Single Housing Benefit Extract
VOA	Valuation Office Agency
WG	Welsh Government

About this manual

Background

1. From 2010 to 2011 the Subsidy Guidance Manual changed to a different format to previous editions.

2. In the past each edition was written for a specific year. This edition is generic and can be used for any year from 2010 to 2011 until 31 March 2019. ‘The relevant year’ means the year for which subsidy is being claimed.

3. Some parts of the manual do refer to a specific year, for example, Appendix A, and this is noted.

4. In the future the only parts of the manual that will be updated will be those where there has been a change in policy or there is a need to refer to a specific year.

5. The Subsidy Guidance Manual amendments will be available at GOV.UK.

What this manual contains

6. This manual details the subsidies the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will pay Local Authorities (LAs) for certain costs of the Housing Benefit (HB).

7. This guidance covers subsidies for:

• benefit costs
• administration costs

8. This manual is also supported by:

• several appendices
• a key word index

Cross references

9. Whenever possible all main guidance for a particular issue is contained in the same section. Sometimes you will be referred to another part of the manual or another document for further related information, rather than repeating that same information.

Language of the manual

10. Some ordinary words and phrases have been used within the manual with a specific meaning to aid ease of reading and understanding. These words and phrases are:

• ‘you’ is used to mean the person within the local authority making the decision
• ‘home’ or ‘accommodation’ is used rather than ‘dwelling they occupy as their home’
• ‘authority’ or ‘authorities’ is used to denote authorities’ responsibilities especially if talking about the administration arrangements within an authority

Queries

11. If you have any queries concerning the content of this manual, contact details are given at the end of each subject

12-99.

Contents

Section 1: Introduction

Subsidy legislation

Section 2: Benefit costs

Benefit costs
Qualifying expenditure
Queries

Section 3: Backdating

Backdated claims
Completion of the subsidy claim form
Claims from persons of Pension Credit age
Queries

Section 4: Overpayments

Overpaid benefit
The treatment of overpayments on the subsidy claim form
Current year overpayments
Prior year overpayments
LA error/Admin delay thresholds
Backdated payments and overpayments
Underlying entitlement
Calculating change of address overpayments
Netting spanning two financial years
HB paid to Crown tenants
Duplicate payments
Universal Credit
Queries

Section 5: Disproportionate rent increase rule (Scottish and Welsh authorities only)

Disproportionate increases in rents rebated through HB
Exemption categories
Category (A) – open and transparent rent-setting policies
Category (B) – rents increased by a common percentage
The DRI calculation
Definitions
Queries

Section 6: Temporary accommodation

Subsidy rules from April 2011
Scope of the revised scheme
Subsidy changes applicable from 1 April 2011
Subsidy under the scheme
Upper subsidy caps
Self-contained accommodation
The LHA rate for the size of the property
Number of bedrooms
Subsidy for board and lodging (B&B) and non self-contained (licensed) accommodation
Subsidy for leased and other self-contained (licensed) accommodation
Claiming subsidy
Audit requirements
Queries

Section 7: Rent allowances

Introduction
Rent allowance cases
Regulated tenancies
Subsidy and regulated tenancies
The eligible rent – the pre-1996 rules (old scheme cases)
Continuously entitled to benefit
Exempt accommodation
Calculation of subsidy in pre-1996 cases
Rates of subsidy for pre-1996 cases
Maximum rent cases (new scheme cases)
Subsidy in maximum rent cases
Registered Social Landlord cases
Rent officer referrals in respect of RSL tenancies
Subsidy in RSL cases
Local Housing Allowance cases
Cases exempt from the LHA rules
Subsidy in LHA cases
Referral to the rent officer
Referral to the officer in certain Housing Association schemes
Further applications for rent officer determinations
Re-determinations
Supply of rent officer information to claimants
Failure to refer relevant cases to the rent officer
Transfer of housing authority stock to the private sector
Representative cases in hostels
Hostel cases – tenancies entered into before 2/15 January 1989
Joint tenancies
Sub-tenancies
Payments on account and indicative rent levels (IRL)
Overpayment recovery action
Subsidy in payment on account and IRL cases
Queries

Section 8: Expenditure not to be included as qualifying expenditure because it does not attract subsidy

Introduction
Differential rent schemes (The modular improvement rule)
Rent-free weeks and credits
Awards to tenants
Prior year overpayments
Recovered overpayments resulting from payments on account
Uncashed payments of HB
Queries
Modified schemes
Benefit awards to war pensioners or war widows/widowers
Additional subsidies to LAs operating a discretionary local scheme
Queries

Section 9: Rent rebate subsidy limitation

Introduction
Data collection
Rent rebate subsidy limitation calculations for LAs in England
Subsidy limitation rent calculation
Average weekly rent (Q)
Definition of a ‘dwelling’
Average weekly rent calculation
Amount of deduction from subsidy
Rent rebate subsidy limitation calculations for LAs in Wales
Calculation of Q
Amount of deduction
Legislation
Derogations
Queries

Section 10: Administration costs

Introduction
Details of the DWP Administration subsidy distribution in the relevant year
Universal Credit roll out
Distribution methodology
Payment of subsidy
Queries

Section 11: In-year instalments of subsidy and payments of subsidy

In-year instalments of subsidy
Payments of subsidy
Queries

Section 12: Extended payments of HB

Extended payments
Subsidy for extended payments
Subsidy for overpayments of extended payments
Queries

Section 13: Expenditure attracting full rate subsidy not separately identified elsewhere on the claim form

Introduction
Cell 023 – England and Wales
Cell 023 – Scotland
Cell 061 – England and Wales only
Cell 110
Queries

Appendices

Appendix A: Summary of 2017/18 benefit subsidy arrangements
Appendix B: Effective dates of rent officers’ determination
Appendix C: Subsidy arrangements for hostel accommodation
Appendix D: Administration Subsidy distribution for 2017 to 2018
Appendix E: Weekly limit rents for LAs in England 2017 to 2018
Appendix F: Amounts for rent rebate subsidy deduction calculation for LAs in Wales 2017 to 2018
Appendix G: Subsidy arrangements for Temporary Accommodation