It is useful to be able to give a rough estimate of how much rent your tenant should be paying from the day they move in, or whenever they have a change in circumstances.

This is recognised as good practice in the Ministry of Justice's Pre-Court Action Protocol and in the Audit Commission's K.L.O.Es; as well as being helpful to both landlord and tenant if the first HB payment is likely to be delayed.

Once you know how much HB the tenant is likely to get you can then enter into an agreement with them and monitor this. This is a useful tool in preventing rent arrears.

How much HB your tenant gets will depend upon the situation they are in.

The calculation of a tenant's HB entitlement is complicated. There are two   calculators on hbnotes (one quick HB calculator and the entitledto one which calculates other benefits too) and many websites are available that you can use to give the tenant an estimate of their HB entitlement.

How much HB a tenant is entitled to, is dependant upon many things:

Eligible rent
Non-dependants in household
Income
Child care costs
Savings
Needs of family.

And of course it does happen that HB Offices occasionally make mistakes, so it is worth checking that the assessment is correct.

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