How board and rent affect your payments

A boarder is someone who pays for accommodation and food in another person's home, and their food costs can't be easily separated out from the amount they pay. Their board payment may also cover other service costs, e.g. internet or power.

If you're living in public housing, and the person living with you is not on the tenancy agreement, they will be considered a boarder.

If you're getting payments from a boarder, it can affect:

• any housing subsidies (e.g. Accommodation Supplement or Temporary Additional Support) for your own accommodation costs
• how much Income Related Rent you pay if you're living in public housing
• income-tested payments from us in some cases.

If you're paying board to someone, we will ask for details of who you're paying this to and how much.

If you're flatting, and all household members share the responsibility to cover the accommodation cost for the property, you do not need to declare your flatmates as boarders or renters. The amount you pay as a flatmate is usually considered rent.

A renter is someone whose accommodation costs cover the room or property they stay in. This may also include service costs (e.g. gardening).

If you're getting payments from a renter, it can affect:

• any housing subsidies you get (e.g. Accommodation Supplement or Temporary Additional Support) for your own accommodation costs
• any income-tested payments from us in some cases.

If you're paying rent to someone, we will ask for details of who you're paying this to and how much.

If you're flatting, and all household members share the responsibility to cover the accommodation cost for the property, you do not need to declare your flatmates as boarders or renters. The amount you pay as a flatmate is usually considered rent.

Housing subsidies include:

• Accommodation Supplement
• Temporary Additional Support and Special Benefit
• Away from Home Allowance.

How much housing subsidy you can get depends on how much your accommodation costs are.

How board affects housing subsidies

If you're getting board payments, some of those payments will already cover part of your accommodation costs.

To work out how much your accommodation costs are, we:

• look at how much board you are paid
• work out 62% of this, which is the accommodation portion of the board (the other 38% is for food and other services)
• reduce your accommodation costs by that amount.

Your total accommodation costs are used to work out how much housing subsidy we will pay you.

How rent affects housing subsidies

How much housing subsidy you can get depends on how much your accommodation costs are and whether you live in the same property as your renter.

If you're getting rent payments for part of the same property you live in, those payments will not be included in your personal accommodation costs. This includes when you rent out:

• a self-contained portion of the property (e.g. granny flat),
• non-accommodation rentals (e.g. garage being used as storage).

For these types of rent payments, we work out the portion/percentage of the property you live in, not including the area used by someone else. The non-accommodation rental payments are treated as income, but will not affect your accommodation costs for a housing subsidy.

If you're paid rent by someone who doesn't live with you (e.g. they live in a separate property), we treat the whole payment you get from them as income, but it will not affect your accommodation costs for a housing subsidy.

To work out how much your accommodation costs are, we:

• look at how much rent you are paid
• reduce your accommodation costs by the full rent payment amount.

If you rent out a self-contained portion of your home, we work out your personal accommodation costs based on the portion/percentage of the property you live in - this does not include the area used by someone else.

If you live in public housing, Income Related Rent is the amount of rent you pay. When we calculate your Income Related Rent, we add on 62% of any board payments you get. If you're living in public housing, and the person living with you is not on the tenancy agreement, they will always be considered a boarder.

You can read about the full calculation here:

This change took effect on 2 March 2026. This means 62% of the board payments will be added to your Income Related Rent rate from:

• your next annual rent review, or
• when you next tell us about a change in circumstances.

The money you get from board or rent can affect other payments you get from us, so you need to tell us if you're getting board or rent payments.

Not all the money you get from board or rent payments counts as income – only the amount that is more than either:

• your accommodation costs, or
• the market rent for your home if you're living in public housing, or
• the full amount of the rent payment if they don't live on the same property as you.

To work out how much of your board or rent payments count as income, we:

• calculate how much of the payment we need to count – for board this is 62%, and for rent 100%
• then we compare this amount to your accommodation costs, or market rent if you're in public housing.

If this amount is higher than your accommodation costs or market rent, we work out the difference – that difference counts as income.

If this amount is lower than your accommodation costs or market rent, your board or rent payments do not count as income.

You can check how your income will affect your benefit using the income deduction tables:

The easiest way to tell us is online in MyMSD. Once you’ve logged in, select 'Declare boarders and renters'.

You need to tell us:

• the address
• details of the person paying you board or rent
• how much the board or rent is
• when you get paid, and how often.

We will continue to use this amount every week, so make sure you let us know if it stops or changes.

If you can't use MyMSD, you can also fill out our PDF form:

You need to print this form, complete it, and either post it to us or bring it into one of our services centres. You can also pick one up from any of our service centres.

When people tell us about their accommodation costs, we ask them:

• if they pay board or rent, or get paid board or rent
• who they pay it to, or are paid by
• how much and how often those payments are.

If both the boarder/renter and the person they pay board or rent to (e.g. their landlord or the head tenant) are getting either a housing subsidy or are living in public housing, we need to independently check this information with each of them.

If it doesn't match, we need to contact both these people to get the correct details. This is part of meeting their obligations.

We'll try calling them first. If we can't contact them by phone, we'll send them a letter giving them 10 working days to confirm the correct details. We'll also send them a MyMSD notification, where they can confirm the details.

If they don't confirm or still don't agree, after the 10 working days:

• if they get a housing subsidy, this will stop on day 11
• if they are a public housing tenant, we will notify the housing provider and their rent may go up to market rent.