Housing Benefit / LHA Calculator United Kingdom

Housing support involves two separate questions. The first is how much of your rent the system will consider at all: the Local Housing Allowance cap. The second is how much of that capped figure reaches you once your household and earnings are taken into account. This calculator answers both in order, so you can see the gap no award will close and the gap your own income creates.

The LHA cap comes first

Local Housing Allowance sets a ceiling on the rent housing support will consider. It is published as a weekly figure for each broad rental market area, an area within which a household could reasonably be expected to live and travel, and for each bedroom category from the shared accommodation rate up to four bedrooms. There is no five-bedroom rate, so a large family in a large house is still capped at the four-bedroom figure.

Because the rates are set by area to follow local private rents, the same rent can produce very different results in different parts of the country, and no calculator can guess your rate. Look it up for your postcode and bedroom category and enter it here; the tool converts the weekly rate to a monthly cap by multiplying by 52 and dividing by 12.

If your rent is below the cap, all of it is eligible. If it is above, only the cap is eligible and the difference is a shortfall. That shortfall does not shrink if your earnings fall and never appears on an award letter, because it never enters the calculation. For anyone deciding whether a tenancy is affordable on benefits, it is the most important number. With rent of £1,200 a month and an LHA rate of £200 a week, for example, the cap is £866.67 a month and £333.33 of rent is never covered.

Bedroom entitlement and the shared accommodation rate

Your bedroom category depends on who lives with you, not how many rooms the property has. A couple share one room. Two children under 10 share regardless of sex, and two children of the same sex under 16 share. An extra room is allowed for a non-resident overnight carer where the claimant or partner needs overnight care.

The rule that catches most people is the shared accommodation rate. Single claimants under 35 with no dependent children are normally limited to the rate for a room in a shared house, even if they rent a self-contained one-bedroom flat. In much of the country that rate is roughly half the one-bedroom rate, which turns a modest rent into a large shortfall. There are exemptions, for example for care leavers under 25, some people who have lived in homeless hostels and people receiving certain disability benefits, but they must be claimed.

From eligible rent to an actual award

Once the eligible rent is set, the rest follows the usual Universal Credit calculation. Start with the standard allowance for your household: one rate for a single claimant under 25, a higher one for a single claimant aged 25 or over, and joint rates for couples (£424.90 a month for a single person aged 25 or over in 2026/27). Add the housing element, which is the eligible rent less any non-dependant deduction, and any other elements you qualify for, such as children, limited capability for work or caring. That is your maximum award.

Earnings then reduce it. If you qualify for a work allowance, the first slice of net earnings each month is ignored. It is lower where the award includes help with housing costs (£427 a month for 2026/27) and higher where it does not (£710), and only claimants responsible for a child or with limited capability for work get one. Above the work allowance, every £1 of net pay reduces the award by 55p. The taper applies to the whole award, not just the housing element.

An adult in the household who is neither your partner nor a dependant is expected to contribute to the rent, and a fixed deduction is taken from the housing element whether or not they actually pay.

What this housing benefit calculator shows you

The LHA monthly cap is the ceiling. The rent above the cap is the shortfall no award will cover. The housing support met by the award is how much of the eligible rent your award can fund. The rent left to find yourself is the total of the two gaps: the amount above the cap plus the part of the eligible rent taken by the taper. The chart splits your rent into those three parts.

If the result surprises you, check the LHA rate first. Entering a monthly rate in the weekly field, or a one-bedroom rate when the shared accommodation rate applies, changes the answer more than anything else. The work allowance is also an input, so make sure it matches the current rate for your situation.

Where to go next with a shortfall

Councils have a budget for Discretionary Housing Payments, which can cover a gap between the eligible rent and the actual rent, usually for a limited period while something else changes. Some tenants negotiate the rent down, take in a lodger or move to a cheaper bedroom category. Pension-age renters stay on Housing Benefit rather than Universal Credit, with its own rules on capital and income.

The standard allowances and the 55% taper are stored as parameters and updated each benefit year. The LHA rate stays an input because it is set locally.

This is an estimate to help you plan and check a figure. It is not benefits advice or an award decision.

About This Housing Benefit Calculator

Use this housing benefit calculator to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official GOV.UK guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.