Benefits and statutory pay
Housing Benefit ignores up to £119.70 a week in supported housing
From 5 October 2026, Housing Benefit in supported and temporary accommodation ignores up to £119.70 a week of a resident's earnings.
£119.70 Weekly earnings now ignored
What changed
From 5 October 2026, Housing Benefit ignores up to £119.70 a week of what a resident earns — that top figure is for a couple where at least one of them is 25 or over — in supported or temporary accommodation.
Two sets of regulations do it: the Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/753), made in July, and a No.2 set (SI 2026/978) laid in September that tidies up the first. Both start on 5 October 2026. They add five new weekly earned income disregards for working-age Housing Benefit claimants living in specified accommodation — the Department for Work and Pensions’ term for supported housing — or in temporary accommodation.
A disregard is the slice of your earnings the calculation pretends is not there. Here is what is now ignored each week.
| Who you are | Weekly earnings now ignored |
|---|---|
| Single, or a lone parent, under 25 | £61.41 |
| Single, or a lone parent, 25 or over | £77.73 |
| Couple, both under 18 | £97.33 |
| Couple, at least one 18 or over, both under 25 | £61.53 |
| Couple, at least one 25 or over | £119.70 |
What it replaces
It replaces a cliff edge, and DWP’s guidance to councils is precise about where that cliff sat. As someone’s earnings rise, their Universal Credit is tapered away. When Universal Credit stops altogether, the fall in Housing Benefit could be larger than the rise in earnings that caused it — so overall income went down even though the person was earning more.
The DWP says the regulations change how Housing Benefit is calculated “so it aligns with Universal Credit”, and that “no group is made worse off by this change”. It puts the number of residents in supported housing and temporary accommodation at more than 325,000, and says nearly 50,000 young people starting out in employment are among those affected.
The thing people will get wrong
Three things, and the first is the big one.
This is not a change to ordinary Housing Benefit. It applies to specified accommodation and temporary accommodation only, using the Universal Credit definitions of both. If you rent privately, or from a council or housing association in the normal way, nothing in your calculation has changed.
Second, the new amounts are on top of the standard earnings disregard you already qualify for, not instead of it. The guidance is explicit that they “do not replace that disregard”. Read the figures above as extra headroom.
Third, there is nothing to claim. The guidance says the rules apply automatically to new and existing claims where the claimant meets the conditions, and that they cover self-employed earnings as well as wages. Councils administer Housing Benefit, and their software was being updated so the new disregards applied correctly from 5 October. If your award letter after that date does not look as though it has been applied, query it with your council rather than waiting.
One caution on expectations: this does not raise anyone’s wages. It slows the rate at which housing support falls as earnings rise, which is a different and quieter thing. For most people the gain shows up as the next shift being worth taking.
Where these figures come from
- HB A9/2026: New earned income disregards in Housing Benefit for Working Age residents — GOV.UK
- Supported housing residents to keep more of what they earn as new rules come into force — Department for Work and Pensions
- The Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/753) — legislation.gov.uk
Every figure traces to a dated document — the line this section is named after. If one here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed publicly. Work out your own figures.