Housing Benefit and Eligible Charges – More Info

Why might it be of interest?

When young people live in supported living their rent is usually paid by a separate Housing Benefit application rather than the housing element under Universal Credit.  For young people with a disability who rent via the housing register or privately their rent is paid according to the LHA via the housing element of UC.

In either case the rent can include costs considered ‘eligible’.  There may be some additional costs that are considered ‘ineligible’ and these have to be paid by the tenant.

Some of the eligible charges may be included in the rental amount or they might be separately listed.  Service charges may be included as part of your eligible rent if:

• you have to pay them to occupy your home, and
• they are related to the provision of adequate accommodation, and
• the council accepts that the service charges are not excessive
• the charge is not ‘ineligible’

It may be helpful to understand what charges can be included and what can’t.  The charges will be listed in your tenancy agreement.

The sum of the rent and the additional charges are called the ‘eligible rent’.

The information below was gathered from Shelter and a government website:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/benefits/housing_benefit/service_charges_covered_by_housing_benefit

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-service-charges-guidance-for-landlords/universal-credit-service-charges-guidance-for-landlords

What is a service charge?

Service charges are defined as periodical payments for:

• services which are performed
• facilities that are provided, including the use of furniture

The letting agreement might show service charges as a payment which is either:

• included in the total rental figure
• added as a separate charge to the rental figure
• classified as something else, such as a ‘housing management fee’

 Ineligible charges

Let’s start with the types of charges that are not considered ‘eligible’.  There will nearly always be some charges payable to the landlord which do not meet the criteria for being eligible charges.  Ineligible does not mean optional!  These are usually daily living charges that are not communal charges and include:

• Fuel (personal heating and light)
• Water
• Meals (or groceries)
• Personal care and support including eating and drinking, personal hygiene
• Personal services such as laundry or a cleaning service
• Transport
• TV rental and license fee
• Leisure items like recreation facilities
• Counselling or medical support services
• Medical expenses
• installation, maintenance or repair of any special equipment or adaptations to the tenant’s accommodation, in respect of disability or infirmity of tenants
• Individual emergency alarm system
• Subscription or fee-based TV
• Communal social recreational areas considered excessive would include gyms, swimming pool, cafe
• Provision of furniture and recreational facilities in communal rooms, eg TV license, computers, wifi

If these facilities, services, etc are provided by the landlord then each young person will have to pay their share.  The amount is usually quite small – somewhere between a few pounds and maybe £30 per week.

It is usually easier for the landlord to pay for these things and charge back to the tenants than for the tenants to individually pay themselves.  For example, if the landlord didn’t pay for the TV license then this would have to be in the name of one of the tenants.

Eligible charges

The government website (above) categorises eligible services charges into 4 broad areas:

Category A:  maintaining the general standard of the accommodation

Category B:  areas of communal use

Category C:  basic communal services

Category D:  tenant accommodation-specific charges

The following information is directly from the government website.

Category A

• charges for the external cleaning of the tenant’s windows, only where the tenant does not live on the ground floor

In the case of shared ownership tenancies only:

• internal or external maintenance or repair of the property, but only where those payments are separately identifiable as being for that purpose

Category B

The ongoing maintenance, including repair, cleaning and utility (such as the provision of heating, water and electricity) costs of:

• communal grounds maintenance, including general basic gardening for communal gardens such as lawn mowing, tree management, hedge maintenance and litter removal, plus lighting and maintenance costs for areas of external access, where the tenant is liable to pay for these
• tenant car or bike parking (this does not extend to the manning of car parks for security purposes) – such charges must relate to maintaining a parking service for tenants, and must not relate to the provision of security for the tenant’s vehicle
• communal laundry facilities
• children’s play areas, including equipment maintenance and surface maintenance
• internal areas of common use outside of the home (hallways, corridors and rooms), including provision of lighting and emergency lighting
• external and internal cleaning of windows of communal areas
• health and safety charges for eligible communal areas, or eligible communal service (such as legionnaires assessment, chlorination of water tanks, dechlorination of water tanks, water softness, electrical equipment checks, pest control and fire prevention and detection)

Category C

Charges relating to the provision, maintenance, cleaning or repair of:

communal lifts, including stair lifts in communal areas

• a communal telephone (but excluding the costs of telephone calls)
• adaptations in communal areas, where other public funding is not available to provide for this, such as the ongoing maintenance costs
• secure building access, including key-cards and keypad door locking mechanism
• provision of equipment, such as aerials, to access free-to-air television and radio
• Where this equipment includes the ability to extend services to include satellite/cable television or internet connection, any extensions to the service will not be eligible for benefit payment.
• Charges for the provision, maintenance and repair of:
• refuse collection, including refuse chutes, communal refuse collection and disposal
• closed-circuit television (CCTV), where this is provided for the purpose of maintenance of areas of internal or external communal use (to help maintain the availability of an eligible communal service or facility)
• Charges for the provision of services, but only the proportion that directly relates to time spent on providing that eligible service:
• if a person, such as a concierge, groundskeeper or caretaker, is employed to provide any eligible service charge, then the relevant proportion of staffing costs for this person will be eligible
• the costs for management and administration of eligible services, whether incurred by the landlord or by third parties, that the tenant is liable as calculated and charged for in accordance with the terms of their tenancy agreement or other related agreement

Category D

• charges relating to the rental of basic furniture or essential domestic appliances to tenants in the accommodation they occupy, only where the items being rented remain the property of the original owner and do not form part of a purchase or part-ownership agreement