How income from lodgers (sub tenants), boarders and joint tenants affects your benefit

What are lodgers?

A lodger is someone who lives with you and pays you for accommodation on a commercial basis. There are two kinds:

  • A boarder is someone who pays you for accommodation which includes payment for some cooked or prepared meals that are made and eaten in your accommodation or associated premises.
  • A lodger or sub tenant is a person whose payment does not include an element for cooked or prepared meals.

Income from boarders

When calculating Housing Benefit, the income from boarders is taken into account as follows.

We will:

  • Disregard the first £20 of their rent paid to you
  • Count half of the remainder as unearned income
  • Disregard a separate £20 for each individual boarder who is charged for, even if a child, regardless of whether they have separate agreements

We only take a boarder's income into account in this way if you receive any of the following:

  • Income Support
  • Jobseekers Allowance (income-based)
  • Employment and Support Allowance (income-related)
  • Pension Credit (guarantee credit)
  • Universal Credit

Income from sub tenants

The income from a sub tenant is taken into account as follows.

We will:

  • Disregard the first £20 per week of their rent paid to you
  • Count the rest as unearned income
  • Disregard a separate £20 for each letting

A lodger may claim Housing Benefit in their own right subject to the normal rules.

A lodger is not counted if they are an adult child, relative or friend of yours where there is no commercial arrangement for residing in your household. If there is any doubt over this situation, we will carry out checks on the living arrangement.

What are joint tenants?

A joint tenant is someone who is also liable to pay the rent for the property you are living in. Their name is usually on the tenancy agreement, along with yours. For Housing Benefit, we look at how much rent you are solely liable to pay (your share). We do not look at the whole amount of rent that is to be paid for the property jointly by you and any other joint tenants.

  • For example, if you and two other joint tenants are liable to pay £300 per month, we will divide that amount by how many tenants there are. In this case it means we will base your claim on £100 per month rent.

We do this because each person must claim their own Housing Benefit based on their individual circumstances.

Joint tenants and Council Tax Reduction

The rules for Council Tax Reduction in Herefordshire are widely similar to the rules for Housing Benefit.

Usually, we will divide how much Council Tax you are liable to pay by how many joint tenants there are. There are some circumstances when calculations are more complex, for example where a joint tenant is disregarded for Council Tax purposes. In this case we will give you a full breakdown in any decision letter we send you.