Anna lives in a refuge. She has one child aged 6. Both are fit and well.
Universal Credit thinks that each month they need £692.95: £400.14 for Anna and £292.81 for her child. If she was not working, this is what she would get.
She earns £1,943.87 per month.
UC does an earnings deduction of £692.93.
She gets £0.02 of UC each month.
Because she gets UC, she is entitled to Maximum-HB covering the full rent for her refuge place; though she will have to pay the ineligible-services-charge.
Zainab lives in a refuge. She has one child aged 6. Both are fit and well.
She earns five pence more than Anna: £1,947.92 per month.
Because of this she does not qualify for Universal Credit, but she can still claim Housing Benefit.
Housing Benefit thinks that they need £176.71 per week: £92.05 for Zainab and £84.66 for her child.
Housing Benefit counts her weekly earnings as £406.19.
Because of her excess income of £229.48 her HB is reduced by £149.16 each week.
The moral of the story?
A single woman with one child can earn upto £1,947.87 per month and still get Max-HB for her refuge.
This is a worst-case-scenario. Other factors such as health problems, more children, or child-care costs would increase this threshold figure.
But it’s so important to know the threshold and stay below it.
Zainab’s extra five pence of earnings reduces her Housing Benefit by almost £650 per month.
If you are a worker in refuge accommodation and you want to know the individual earnings threshold for a woman that you work with, feel free to get in touch.
Click here for information about women who do not have children