If you rent your home and have a low income, or get welfare benefits, you may be entitled to Housing Benefit.
If you rent your home from a private landlord, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) will be used to calculate the amount of Housing Benefit that you can receive.
A number of changes to the rules on LHA and Housing Benefit have been introduced over the past few years. Our advice pages are updated as changes are implemented, but a summary of the changes can be found here.
If your income is affected by Coronavirus and you are currently getting housing benefit you should report any changes to your income to the housing benefit department as soon as you can.
Your benefit will usually increase if you report an income drop promptly.
If you are unsure if you are entitled to housing benefit, you can find out more about what you can claim on the entitledto website.
Housing Benefit is a means-tested benefit to help people pay their rent. This page explains more about what it is, what it covers, and who can claim it
The amount of Housing Benefit you are entitled to depends upon your rent, income, capital and circumstances. The rules are complicated – find out more here.
Local housing allowance (LHA) is a way of working out how much housing benefit you are entitled to if you rent your home from a private landlord
The bedroom tax reduces the Housing Benefit of working-age council and housing association tenants when the council decides you have one or more spare bedrooms. Find out if it affects you here.
If you get some Housing Benefit but are having difficulty paying the rest of your rent yourself, you may be able to get a discretionary housing payment
Fed up looking at letters from the Benefit department and not knowing what they mean? This page can help you understand the jargon.
There have been a number of changes to the benefit system, including the bedroom tax and the benefit cap. These changes may have affected the amount of help you get to pay your rent.
If you think you might be entitled to help to pay your rent, read this page to find out how to make a claim, the information you will need to provide, and how to make sure everything runs smoothly.
This page tells you what to expect while you are waiting and what to do if you haven’t heard anything
This page tells you how to work out what the letter says and what you can do if you disagree with it
If you receive a letter or an explanation from the Housing Benefit department that you do not agree with, there are things you can do
You may be able to ask for your Housing Benefit to be backdated for a short period.
Find out which changes you have to tell the Housing Benefit department about
You may need to start paying rent on a new home before you can actually move in. In some situations, you may be able to get Housing Benefit
You can get Housing Benefit while you are away from home for up to 13 weeks, so long as you intend to come back to your home and you are not likely to be away any longer
Normally you can only get Housing Benefit for one home at a time. However, there are special circumstances where it may be possible to have Housing Benefit paid for more than one home.
You may not be able to claim Housing Benefit if you pay rent to a family member or partner.
Most full-time students are not entitled to Housing Benefit, however there are some exceptions
You might be able to claim Housing Benefit to help pay rent or pitch fees for your mobile home.
Passporting benefits are benefits that, once you have them, automatically allow you to collect other benefits
We are sorry that we cannot provide this information in Welsh, however if you would like to speak to an adviser in Welsh please contact 08000 495 495.
This page was last updated on: Hydref 1, 2021
Shelter Cymru acknowledges the support of Shelter in allowing us to adapt their content. The information contained on this site is updated and maintained by Shelter Cymru and only gives general guidance on the law in Wales. It should not be regarded or relied upon as a complete or authoritative statement of the law.
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