What is Housing Benefit?
'''Housing Benefit''' is a [[Means test|means tested]] [[social security]] benefit in the United Kingdom that is intended to help with the costs of rent. Rent rebates, as they were called, started in the 1930s when [[council house]]<nowiki/>s were built to clear [[slum]]<nowiki/>s. The rents were often to high for the poor people who had lived in the slums. [[Local government in England|Local councils]] made their own arrangements. The first national system started in 1972. It covered [[Rates (tax)|rates]] as well as rent. For people in private housing it was called rent allowance. People who got [[Supplementary Benefit]] had all their rent paid. People who had more money than that still got some help. By 1983 about 30% of the population were getting Housing Benefit. After 1986 it was lined up with the rules for [[Income Support.]] <ref> {{cite book |title=The Law of Social Security|last1=Ogus|first1=A|last2=Barendt|first2=E M|date=1988|publisher=Butterworths|isbn=0406063370|edition=3|location=London|page=3}}</ref> The cost of housing for low-income [[household]]<nowiki/>s has risen a lot. The cost of Housing Benefit rose from 0.2% of [[Gross domestic product|GDP]] in 1980-81 to 1.0% in 2012-13. <ref>{{Cite web|title=Social Insecurity|url=https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/social-insecurity/|access-date=2023-03-10|website=The Inquiry|language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2015 £9.3 billion was paid to private landlords.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2016-08-19|title=Private landlords double housing benefit haul to £9.3bn|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/education-37132249|access-date=2023-12-12}}</ref> From 2019 housing benefit was moved into [[Universal Credit]] except for people above [[State Pension (United Kingdom)|State Pensio]][[State Pension (United Kingdom)|n]] age and people living in supported, [[sheltered]] or [[temporary]] housing.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Housing Benefit|url=https://www.gov.uk/housing-benefit|access-date=2023-02-03|website=GOV.UK|language=en}}</ref> in 202