Housing Benefit earned income disregard regulations laid

The Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2026 were laid on 6 July 2026, the same day as the regulations they amend¹. The instrument corrects provisions in the Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, which were made at 9.00 a.m. and laid before Parliament at 3.00 p.m. on 6 July 2026 and come into force on 5 October 2026². The corrective instrument is due to come into force in advance of those Regulations so that they come into force as amended¹.

The 2026 Regulations extend the sums disregarded when calculating the earnings of a person claiming Housing Benefit who lives in specified accommodation or temporary accommodation². The amendments apply to working-age Housing Benefit only, with no changes to the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006². The extent of the corrective instrument is England, Wales and Scotland¹.

The Department for Work and Pensions says the original provisions could have excluded lone parents, prevented the disregard from operating as intended for couples, affected its interaction with existing earnings disregard provisions, and imposed an unintended minimum-hours requirement through the use of the term "remunerative work"¹. The substituted paragraph 18 provides that a claimant can qualify where they, or their partner, is an employed earner or self-employed earner without any minimum hours requirement, and provides for the disregard amount to be shared between partners¹.

The disregard amounts set out in the 2026 Regulations are²:

The Department has sent a voluntary memorandum explaining and apologising for the errors to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, with a similar memorandum to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee¹. No formal public consultation was undertaken because the instrument does not introduce a new policy or change the policy objective consulted upon previously¹. The Local Government Association was consulted on 20 August 2026 and was content with the instrument, and the Social Security Advisory Committee was notified and did not take the regulations on formal reference¹. A full impact assessment was not prepared because the instrument has no, or no significant, impact on business, charities, voluntary bodies or the public sector¹.

Why it matters for households

The changes affect working-age Housing Benefit claimants in specified accommodation or temporary accommodation who work, and their partners, from 5 October 2026¹. The higher disregards mean more of a claimant's earnings are left out of the means test, which can raise the amount of benefit paid. The correction means lone parents are not excluded from the new disregard, couples are treated as intended, and no minimum-hours test applies¹. Where a claimant has no earnings, or earnings below the disregard amount, a partner's earnings may be disregarded up to the applicable amount¹. The rules sit alongside the Universal Credit housing element for claimants who have moved to that benefit. No figures have been reported for the number of households affected or the cost of the measure.

What happens next

The corrective instrument comes into force before 5 October 2026, when the amended 2026 Regulations take effect¹. The Department will publish an adjudication circular providing guidance for local authority staff before the instrument comes into force¹. The instrument does not include a statutory review clause¹.