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On a benefit homepage
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loginIncome from boarders
If you have other people sharing your home and paying you to live there, you need to tell us about it as it could affect your payments.
What is board
Board is the amount paid by someone (called a boarder) 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.
How board payments can affect payments from us
The money you get from your boarders can affect any income-tested payments you get from us. You need to tell us if you're getting board payments.
Not all the money you get from board 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.
To work out how much of your board payments count as income, we:
- look at how much board you are paid and work out 62% of this
- compare this amount to your accommodation costs, or market rent if you're in public housing.
If the 62% is lower than your accommodation costs or market rent, your board payments do not count as income. However, it will affect the amount of housing subsidy you can get from us.
If the 62% is higher than your accommodation costs or market rent, we work out the difference – that difference counts as income. You can check how this affects your payments using the income deduction tables:
How to tell us
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
- how much the board 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.
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