Housing benefit for prisoners

This content applies to England only.

Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. Get advice relating to Scotland

Housing benefit for prisoners can be paid in some circumstances. Find out what happens when someone is remanded into custody, sent to prison, allowed home detention curfew (HDC) or released.

Housing benefit if you are sent to prison

If you rent your home, it may be possible to get housing benefit to help pay the rent if you are in prison, but only for a limited amount of time. You are treated as though you are away from home temporarily. You must intend to return to your home. The length of time you can get benefit for depends on how long you are likely to be away from home.

Changing circumstances

If you claim housing benefit, you have to tell your local council’s housing benefit department each time there is a change in your circumstances.

You will need to tell the housing benefit department each time you are:

  • remanded in custody
  • sentenced
  • released. 

The prison service provides a standard form for each of these circumstances for people who were claiming housing benefit before they were sent to prison and these can also be obtained from the Department for Work and Pensions website.

Find out what you need to do if you need to make a new claim for housing benefit.

If you are on bail at home

If you have been charged with a crime and are released on bail and allowed to live at home, you are not absent from home and may be entitled to housing benefit to help pay your rent.

If you are a prisoner on remand

If you are in custody waiting for a trial or sentencing, or you have to stay away from home (for example, in a bail or probation hostel) as a condition of bail, you may get housing benefit for up to 52 weeks. To qualify, you must intend to return home and be unlikely to be away for longer than 52 weeks (or slightly longer in exceptional cases).

You will not be entitled to housing benefit to pay for the costs of a bail or probation hostel. If you are renting out your property, you will not be entitled to housing benefit.

If you were claiming housing benefit before you were remanded to prison, you must let the housing benefit department know you are in prison. Make sure your prison completes the notification of remand in custody form for prisoners on remand, and that you send it to your local council’s housing benefit department within 14 days.

If you were not claiming housing benefit before you were remanded, for example because you were working and earning too much to qualify, you may become entitled once you are in prison. Write to your council asking for a claim form, ask for one from a prison housing adviser or download one from the DWP website.

Your housing benefit will stop when you are sentenced, unless the total time you are away from home (on remand and sentenced) is 13 weeks or less.

If you are on home detention curfew (HDC)

If you are on home detention curfew (HDC), you are treated as having been released from prison and can claim housing benefit in the usual way for the period you are at home.

Even though you may be entitled to out of work benefits (income support, jobseeker's allowance or employment and support allowance) as soon as you are released, you may not receive any money for at least a couple of weeks. You may need to claim a social fund crisis loan to cover your expenses for this period.

If you are sentenced to prison

You can receive housing benefit for up to 13 weeks if you are sentenced to prison, so long as the total time you will spend in prison is likely to be 13 weeks or less, including any time you spent on remand. This means:

  • if you have already spent 13 weeks or more on remand, you will get no further housing benefit when you are sentenced
  • if you have spent less than 13 weeks on remand, you will only get housing benefit if you are released within 13 weeks starting from your remand date.

How long will you spend in prison?

In practice, you may be released before your sentence is up – many prisoners do not serve the full length of their sentence (and time spent on remand counts towards your sentence). The Prison Service should be able to tell you what your earliest release date is expected to be.

  • If your sentence is for 26 weeks or less, you may serve 13 weeks or less in prison because you are likely to serve only half your sentence in prison.
  • If your sentence is for up to 12 months in prison, and you qualify for home detention curfew (HDC), you may be released within 13 weeks, although you will spend some of your sentence on curfew at home monitored by an electronic tag. Make sure you claim housing benefit even if you don’t yet know if you will get HDC.

Note that if your sentence is for six months, you may find that you will not always be released within 13 weeks, depending on what date you are sentenced.

If you are claiming housing benefit, the prison service should use a change of status or custodial sentence form to tell the council that you have been sentenced. It is also your responsibility to tell them about your changes in circumstances.

If you are on temporary release

After you have been sentenced, if you are allowed home on temporary release, you are treated as if you are still in prison and away from home. The time spent at home counts towards the 13 week limit following sentence.

If you have been released

You can claim housing benefit and other benefits as soon as you are acquitted or released.

If you have been paid housing benefit while you were in prison, you will need to tell the housing benefit department you have been released. Your prison should use a released from custody form to let your local council’s housing benefit department know the date of your release. You will need to make sure that the completed form is sent to the council as soon as possible (and within 14 days of your release).

You can make a new claim for housing benefit along with your claim for other benefits – don’t delay – it can be difficult to get payments backdated. Make sure you keep hold of your prison discharge form as this can help prove your identity.

Will housing benefit pay all my rent if I am in prison?

Housing benefit will only cover rent up to a certain amount – if you are a private tenant and your rent is high, housing benefit is unlikely to cover all of it. This means there will be a shortfall. If you can’t afford to pay the remaining rent, you risk rent arrears and possible eviction.

If you are the partner or former partner of a prisoner

If you are the tenant or joint tenant of your home, you can claim housing benefit yourself as you are responsible for the rent.

If your partner has been sent to prison and isn’t paying the rent on the home you shared, you may be able to claim housing benefit even if you are not the tenant. Housing benefit can be paid to another person if it is reasonable to treat them as responsible for the rent.

If your relationship has broken down, housing benefit may be paid to enable you to continue to live in the home if your former partner was responsible for the rent and is not paying it.

In all these situations, you will have to make a claim for housing benefit.

If your child is sent to prison

If your child is sent to prison, your entitlement to housing benefit may be affected if your child has no intention of returning to your home, or is likely to be in prison for more than 52 weeks.

This may affect your entitlement, for example, if you are renting a privately rented home – there are limits on the amount of housing benefit that can be paid depending on the size of your household.

The Prison Reform Trust and the Offender’s families helpline provide specialist help for prisoners and their families.

If you didn’t claim housing benefit

It is much easier to sort out your benefits entitlement if you claim in time. If, however, there are strong reasons which would enable you to argue you had ‘good cause for a late claim’, you may be able to get housing benefit backdated.

If you have rent arrears because you have been in prison, you could ask for a discretionary payment of housing benefit.

Make sure you contact a prison adviser or welfare benefits adviser to help – use our directory to find one.


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