If you are a social housing tenant, under the qualifying age for state pension credit and have a spare bedroom your housing benefit will be reduced by:
It means a bedroom which is not currently occupied by any of the following:
In addition:
What you use your spare room for is irrelevant. If it is decided that you have more bedrooms than the rules say you need, you will lose part of your housing benefit and must make up the shortfall in rent.
It is possible that the amount of housing benefit you get to pay your rent could go down. If you are assessed under these rules as having more bedrooms than is necessary for your household you will be considered to be under-occupying that property.
If you are under-occupying there will be a reduction in housing benefit of:
Example A
Mr and Mrs Jones live in a two-bedroom flat costing £70 per week in rent and they receive maximum housing benefit of £70 per week. From April 2013 the amount of eligible rent used in the calculation would be reduced by 14% or £9.80 because their second bedroom is regarded as a spare room under the new rules so the maximum housing benefit that they can receive is £60.
Benefits Team
If you have an enquiry about benefits, send a message to the Benefits Team
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