Your entitlement to Housing Benefit (HB) or Council Tax Support (CTS) depends on your income. When we calculate your income, some types of income are ignored or disregarded.
Ignored income
Where a claimant is getting any of the following, we will ignore their income and they will qualify for the full maximum HB and CTS:
- income based Jobseeker's Allowance; or
- Income Support; or
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance; or
- guarantee element of Pension Credit; or
- treated as getting these benefits
Income that is not ignored
We will take into account all other income including:
- earnings
- self-employed earnings
- pensions
- certain state benefits
- rent received from tenants or boarders
Disregarded income
Some incomes are fully or partly disregarded when working out a person's income. These include:
- Attendance Allowance
- Business expenses paid with salary;
- Charitable voluntary payments;
- Disability living allowance;
- Fostering payments
- Child maintenance payments
- Payments (e.g. house keeping) from a non dependant;
See also
Contact us
Merton Benefits Service
PO Box 610
Merton Civic Centre
London Road
Morden
SM4 5ZT
Email: housing.benefits@merton.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 8274 4903
Textphone: 020 8545 3959