Benefits and support The 'spare room' rules

How it works - examples

From April 2013 Housing Benefit covers only the number of bedrooms you need not the number of bedrooms you have.

For example:

• a single person or a couple only needs a one-bedroom place; while a couple with one child, or with two children of the same sex, needs only two bedrooms; or

• If you are a joint tenant with several people (for example three single people sharing a flat) you need to count all the joint tenants when you work out how many bedrooms you need. For example three joint tenants renting a four-bedroom house need three bedrooms, so they have one extra bedroom.

You can use the bedroom calculator on the Valuation Office Agency's website to see how many bedrooms Housing Benefit will cover.

If the rules class you as having more bedrooms than you need you have to make up the difference yourself.

If Housing Benefit used to cover all your rent, from April 2013 it goes down like this:

If Housing Benefit covered part of your rent, from April 2013 the amount goes down in a similar way:

Here are some more examples:

• A couple living in a two-bedroom house have a weekly rent of £75, which was paid in full by Housing Benefit before April 2013.
  Under the new rules they need only one bedroom. They are treated as having an extra bedroom, so their Housing Benefit reduces by 14 per cent of their £75 rent, £10.50. They get £64.50 Housing Benefit (£75 - £10.50) instead of £75. They need to pay £10.50 towards their rent.
• A couple with a son aged eight and a daughter aged six live in a three-bedroom house. Their weekly rent is £90 and they get £50 Housing Benefit to help with rent, so they paid £40 each week before April 2013. 
  Under the new rules they need two bedrooms, one for them and one for the children (the children are expected to share a room as they are both under ten). They have one extra bedroom. Their Housing Benefit reduces by 14 per cent of their £90 rent, £12.60. They get £37.40 Housing Benefit (£50 - £12.60) instead of £50. They need to pay £52.60 (£40 + £12.60) towards the rent.
• Sonia, aged 52, lives with her son aged 25 in a four-bedroom house. Her two older children have now left home. Her weekly rent is £100 and before April 2013 she got £22 a week in Housing Benefit. She paid £78 each week.
  Under the new rules Sonia needs two bedrooms, one for her and one for her son. She has two extra bedrooms. Her Housing Benefit reduces by 25 per cent of her £100 rent, £25. She no longer gets any Housing Benefit and needs to pay her full £100 rent instead of £78.
• Asif is one of three joint tenants jointly renting a four-bedroom house. The weekly rent for the house is £120 and Asif's share is £40, one-third of the rent. Before April 2013 he got £25 Housing Benefit towards his share of the rent. 
  Under the new rules the joint tenants have one extra bedroom as they need only three bedrooms, one each. Because of this there is a 14 per cent reduction of the total rent for the house (14 per cent of £120 = £16.80) when benefit is worked out. As Asif is liable for one-third of the rent, his Housing Benefit is reduced by one-third of the 14 per cent reduction (£16.80 divided by 3 = £5.60). He gets £19.40 Housing Benefit (£25 - £5.60) and he needs to pay £20.60 (£40 - £19.40) towards his rent.

See what you can do about the changes