By Julia Service, managing director, Housing Systems

What is the issue?

2024 is a 53-week rent year (ie, there are 53 Mondays). But when a universal credit claimant’s housing costs element is worked out, the DWP will take a claimant’s weekly rent and (assuming there are no rent-free weeks) multiply it by 52 and divide by 12.

This means that a UC claimant who lives in rented accommodation, and has a weekly rent, is missing out on about a day’s help with their rent from UC for each year they are on it.

This is because, when the DWP converts a weekly rent into a monthly rent and use a 52-week year, they are covering 364 days (7 x 52), but there aren’t exactly 52 weeks in a year – years are either 365 days long or 366 in a leap year.

So, there’s a week’s Housing Costs Element ‘missing’ which has accumulated over a 5/6-year period – meaning a claimant who has been on UC throughout those 5/6 years receives one week’s less help with their rent than they need.

The fact that 365 doesn’t divide neatly by seven (and we have a leap year) also means that every 5/6 years there are 53 Mondays in a financial year.

The result is that in a 53-week rent year a UC claimant’s rent account will take a sudden jump in arrears, because the full week’s rent will be debited on the Monday of the 53rd week (even though part of that week will fall into the following financial year).

We’re not sure there are any easy answers here…

Could the claimant apply for a discretionary housing payment for that week’s rent? Well, as it’s not really a week’s rent that’s ‘missing’, and the LA would struggle financially to cover this for all claimants affected (and DHPs are about preventing hardship/homelessness) we can’t see LAs doing that!

One option would be for landlords to suggest that UC claimants pay the little extra a month to get their rent account ‘ahead’ for when the 53 week rent year hits. (Note, that if they start doing that this year, it means they will be paying off the debt rather than preparing for it.)

How do you explain to tenants on universal credit that they need to start paying an extra day’s rent a year?

This is the best explanation we could come up with:

Your landlord charges your rent weekly, but universal credit is assessed and paid monthly.
Because of this, universal credit only pays 364 days in a year, even though there are always 365 days in a year (and 366 every leap year).

So, your universal credit it always going to be one day short each year (or two in a leap year).

Why is this?

The DWP works out your monthly rent by multiplying a week’s rent by 52 and dividing by 12. This would be fine if there were exactly 52 weeks rent in a year but there aren’t. There’s always an extra day in the year – or two in a leap year.
(For the mathematically minded, it’s because 52 times 7 is only 364).

You won’t normally notice this, but every few years when the extra day falls on a Monday* it will show on your rent account as a full week’s debt.
*As this is the day your rent week starts.

Unfortunately, 2024 is one of these years and the DWP has said they won’t pay any extra universal credit to cover this.

Will this affect me?
If you’re clearing your rent account every week or month – reducing the balance to zero – then this won’t be a problem.

But where you pay your rent every month by using the same system as the DWP (ie, your weekly rent times 52 and divided by 12) then you’ll be a day short every year (two in a leap year) and will have to make up that extra.

We are grateful to our friends at Housing Systems for permission to reproduce this article.