Housing costs
Resources and information for advisers on housing costs.
On this page
Online handbooks
Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook (for subscribers):
Universal credit:
Housing benefit:
Additional help if you get help with housing costs within universal credit or housing benefit:
Help with housing costs within other benefits:
Articles
The most recent articles which relate to housing costs from our Welfare Rights Bulletin:
- The transitional element in practice – an update (April 2024)
- Untidy tenancies: still a mess (August 2023)
- Erode to nowhere: the transitional SDP element in UC (February 2022)
Tools and templates
Our tools include tools which help you draft mandatory reconsideration requests (for subscribers):
- Date from which universal credit housing costs should be awarded when DWP not notified about them at beginning of claim: mandatory reconsideration
- Universal credit housing costs where joint tenant has moved out - mandatory reconsideration
Check our appeal submission templates on:
Check our judicial review (JR) pre-action protocol template letters for advisers relating to:
- universal credit - housing costs element
- housing benefit
- discretionary housing payment.
For copies of the JR template letters, advice about whether JR is the appropriate route, and for help with adapting the templates, contact our Judicial Review Project ([email protected]).
eLearning
Our free eLearning course for advisers with existing benefit knowledge:
Training courses
Find out about our training courses on housing costs:
Early Warning System
Our Early Warning System gathers information and evidence on the impact of changes to the benefit system. Send us details of cases: