Abolish working-age Housing Benefit from 1 July 2026 (NI 1 October 2026)

changelog.d/abolish-working-age-housing-benefit.added.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- Added a specified or temporary accommodation input to preserve working-age Housing Benefit, permit new claims alongside Universal Credit and exclude the corresponding Universal Credit housing costs.

changelog.d/abolish-working-age-housing-benefit.fixed.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- Abolish working-age Housing Benefit awards outside specified and temporary accommodation from 1 July 2026 in Great Britain (SI 2025/1148 art. 7, inserted by SI 2026/409) and 1 October 2026 in Northern Ireland (SR 2025/176 art. 7, inserted by SR 2026/115). The new `gov.dwp.housing_benefit.working_age_awards_payable` parameter is day-weighted across each fiscal year, so 2026-27 pays a working-age continuing award for 86/365 of the year in Great Britain and 178/365 in Northern Ireland, and from 2027-28 there is none. Families meeting the Pension Credit age conditions keep their awards: a single claimant or both members of a couple over the qualifying age, and mixed-age couples with the SI 2019/37 art. 4 saving (SI 2014/1230 reg 6A(4)-(5)). A family whose award is abolished claims Universal Credit if `would_claim_uc_at_legacy_closure` is true, which ends the claimant's and partner's income-related ESA.

docs/book/programs/gov/dwp/housing-benefit.ipynb

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
    "source": [
     "# Housing Benefit\n",
     "\n",
-    "Housing Benefit is a means-tested DWP benefit that helps people on a low income with their rent. It is a legacy benefit that is being phased out: new working-age claimants are routed to the Universal Credit housing element instead, and a managed migration of the remaining HB caseload to UC is in progress. Housing Benefit continues to operate for two groups — pensioners and tenants of supported/temporary accommodation — and PolicyEngine models it alongside the UC housing element so reform analyses can move between the two systems cleanly.\n",
+    "Housing Benefit is a means-tested DWP benefit that helps people on a low income with their rent. It is a legacy benefit: most new working-age claimants use the Universal Credit housing element, and working-age awards were abolished on 1 July 2026 in Great Britain and 1 October 2026 in Northern Ireland, subject to statutory savings. Housing Benefit continues for pensioners, protected mixed-age couples, tenants of specified or temporary accommodation and other saved cases. PolicyEngine models the accommodation saving through an explicit input; its coverage of the saved cases and accommodation-specific award rules remains partial.\n",
     "\n",
     "Parameters live in `policyengine_uk/parameters/gov/dwp/housing_benefit/` and the formulas in `policyengine_uk/variables/gov/dwp/housing_benefit/`."
    ]
@@ -19,12 +19,31 @@
    "source": [
     "## Eligibility\n",
     "\n",
-    "`housing_benefit_eligible` requires the benunit to be either in **social housing** or eligible for the **Local Housing Allowance** rate (broadly, private renters), with assessable capital at or below the working-age (or pension-age) capital limit, and to reach Housing Benefit by one of two routes:\n",
+    "`housing_benefit_eligible` requires the benunit to be either in **social housing** or eligible for the **Local Housing Allowance** rate (broadly, private renters), with assessable capital at or below the working-age (or pension-age) capital limit, and to reach Housing Benefit by one of three routes:\n",
     "\n",
     "- **Pension age**: the claimant and any partner have reached the qualifying age for State Pension Credit (State Pension age), or the family is a mixed-age couple that keeps the pension-age route: one entitled to Pension Credit or pension-age Housing Benefit on 14 May 2019 and ever since ([SI 2019/37 art. 4](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/37/article/4)), or any mixed-age couple not reported on Universal Credit before 15 May 2019 (`meets_pension_credit_age_conditions`). New Housing Benefit claims are open to them ([SI 2014/1230 reg. 6A(4) and (5)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1230/regulation/6A)), and Universal Credit is not, so neither a previous claim nor `would_claim_uc` matters.\n",
-    "- **Continuing award**: any other benunit was **already claiming** Housing Benefit (proxied by a positive `housing_benefit_reported`) and is **not claiming Universal Credit**. Working-age families, and mixed-age couples without the saving, cannot make new claims; they claim the Universal Credit housing element instead.\n",
+    "- **Specified or temporary accommodation**: `in_specified_or_temporary_accommodation` is a boolean benunit input, defaulting to `False`. When supplied as `True`, it permits new Housing Benefit claims without a reported previous award, under [SI 2014/1230 reg. 6A(2)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1230/regulation/6A) and [SR 2016/226 reg. 4A(2)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2016/226/regulation/4A). The input refers to the statutory definitions: [GB specified accommodation](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/376/schedule/1/paragraph/3A) and [temporary accommodation](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/376/schedule/1/paragraph/3B), and their [NI specified](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2016/216/schedule/1/paragraph/4) and [temporary](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2016/216/schedule/1/paragraph/4A) equivalents. It is not inferred from tenure or a general supported-housing label.\n",
+    "- **Continuing award**: any other benunit was **already claiming** Housing Benefit (proxied by a positive `housing_benefit_reported`), is **not claiming Universal Credit**, and has a positive `housing_benefit_payable_share`. Working-age families, and mixed-age couples without the saving, cannot make new claims; they claim the Universal Credit housing element instead.\n",
     "\n",
-    "The pension-age test counts the same benunit members as Universal Credit's working-age test, and the continuing-award route requires not claiming Universal Credit, so no benunit receives both. Working-age awards outside specified or temporary accommodation ended on 1 July 2026 in Great Britain ([SI 2025/1148 art. 7](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/1148/article/7)); PolicyEngine does not yet model that. Claims for specified or temporary accommodation, which remain open at any age, are not modelled.\n",
+    "The accommodation route permits Housing Benefit alongside Universal Credit: these Housing Benefit awards do not terminate on a UC claim ([SI 2014/1230 reg. 8(3)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1230/regulation/8); [NI reg. 6(3)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2016/226/regulation/6)). When the input is `True`, PolicyEngine excludes the UC housing costs element, as the corresponding rent payments are excluded from UC housing costs ([SI 2013/376 Schedule 1 para. 3(h)-(i)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/376/schedule/1/paragraph/3); [NI Schedule 1 para. 3(e)-(ea)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2016/216/schedule/1/paragraph/3)). Existing rental, capital, entitlement and Housing Benefit take-up checks still apply. The input does not implement the special eligible-rent or benefit-cap treatment of these accommodation types.\n",
+    "\n",
+    "### Abolition of working-age awards\n",
+    "\n",
+    "Working-age Housing Benefit awards were abolished from **1 July 2026** in Great Britain ([SI 2025/1148 art. 7](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/1148/article/7), inserted by [SI 2026/409](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/409/made)) and **1 October 2026** in Northern Ireland ([SR 2025/176 art. 7](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2025/176/article/7), inserted by [SR 2026/115](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2026/115/made)), subject to these savings:\n",
+    "\n",
+    "- Article 7(4)(a) saves the cases in [SI 2014/1230 reg. 6A(2)-(5)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1230/regulation/6A) and [NI reg. 4A(2)-(5)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2016/226/regulation/4A): specified or temporary accommodation; the qualifying final UC assessment period when the claimant reaches Pension Credit age and the relevant Decisions and Appeals provision applies, with entitlement from reaching that age; pension-age single claimants, couples where both have reached that age and polygamous marriages where all have; and mixed-age couples whose 2019 saving remains effective.\n",
+    "- Article 7(4)(b) saves an award where the claimant was entitled to income-related ESA immediately before the abolition date and the article 3A(2) saving applies: an appointee was appointed immediately before that date, or the Secretary of State (NI: Department) determined in the preceding six months that an appointee was likely to be needed, whether or not one was appointed. Article 3A(3) still permits termination following a UC claim or failure to claim by the migration deadline.\n",
+    "- Article 7(2) delays abolition where, immediately before the abolition date, the claimant was prevented from receiving UC by regulation 19(1)(b) (prisoners) or (c) (serving a sentence of imprisonment while detained in hospital). The appointed abolition date is then the day after the last day that restriction applies; this is not a general saving for anyone who becomes a prisoner later.\n",
+    "\n",
+    "The dates live in `gov.dwp.housing_benefit.working_age_awards_payable` (`great_britain` and `northern_ireland`), with 1 while working-age awards are payable and 0 after. PolicyEngine UK evaluates a year's parameters as one value for the fiscal year starting 6 April. By default that value is the one in force on 30 April, which would have left the whole of 2026-27 unaffected. This parameter is instead day-weighted across the fiscal year (`fiscal_year_blend`), so 2026 (2026-27) takes the share of the year before the abolition: 86/365 in Great Britain (6 April to 30 June) and 178/365 in Northern Ireland (6 April to 30 September). From 2027 it is 0. Annual formulas read the converted annual value at the start of the model year; later values do not switch a YEAR formula partway through that year.\n",
+    "\n",
+    "In a `Simulation` reform dictionary, a bare-year key such as `2026` covers the entire fiscal year and can set its share to 1, and a date range applies over its stated dates. A key dated inside the year, such as `2026-07-01`, leaves that model year's share unchanged (86/365 for Great Britain in 2026), so use whole-year values or a range for annual reform scenarios.\n",
+    "\n",
+    "`housing_benefit_payable_share` applies this per benunit. It is 1 when `in_specified_or_temporary_accommodation` is `True`, in every model year. It is also 1 for a benunit meeting the Pension Credit age conditions (`meets_pension_credit_age_conditions`): a single claimant, or both members of a couple, over the qualifying age (reg 6A(4)), or a mixed-age couple with the 2019 saving ([SI 2019/37 art. 4](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/37/article/4); reg 6A(5)), which the model infers from current receipt. A mixed-age couple without the saving loses its award like a working-age family. For other benunits it is the share for their country. A working-age continuing award stays eligible while the share is above 0, and `housing_benefit_pre_benefit_cap` pays the entitlement times the share. An unprotected working-age continuing award in 2026 is therefore paid for the part of the year before the abolition, and there is none from 2027.\n",
+    "\n",
+    "What happens to the families whose awards end is set by `would_claim_uc`, the Universal Credit take-up input. Families without the accommodation input that claim Universal Credit already receive it instead of Housing Benefit in every year. Families that do not claim it lose Housing Benefit and receive no Universal Credit. The Enhanced FRS take-up draw does not look at legacy receipt, so it leaves too many former claimants with neither. DWP's Move to Universal Credit statistics show that 97% of households sent a migration notice while on Housing Benefit and another legacy benefit claimed Universal Credit (98% of those also on Employment and Support Allowance), and 75% of Housing Benefit-only households did. Transitional protection, which went only to households that claimed after a migration notice, is not modelled.\n",
+    "\n",
+    "No current dataset supplies `in_specified_or_temporary_accommodation`, so its default of `False` leaves existing dataset outputs unchanged. The other savings requiring histories or decisions remain unmodelled: the qualifying final UC assessment-period case, the ESA appointee or likely-needed-appointee determination, and the restricted prisoner cases. The pension-age and protected mixed-age routes remain approximations. The Enhanced FRS therefore still has no working-age Housing Benefit from 2027. Accommodation-specific eligible-rent and benefit-cap rules also remain gaps even when the accommodation input is supplied. DWP's Spring 2026 forecast for Great Britain is £1.64bn of temporary-accommodation and £3.94bn of supported-accommodation Housing Benefit in 2026-27, across all ages.\n",
     "\n",
     "**Guarantee Credit passport.** If the claimant or partner is in receipt of a guarantee credit (`in_receipt_of_guarantee_credit`: the benunit is eligible for Pension Credit, claims it, and its guarantee credit is positive, so the Pension Credit paid includes a guarantee credit), the whole of their capital and income is disregarded ([SI 2006/214 reg. 26](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/214/regulation/26); Northern Ireland: [SR 2006/406 reg. 24](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2006/406/regulation/24)). `housing_benefit_assessable_capital`, `housing_benefit_tariff_income` and `housing_benefit_applicable_income` are then zero, so the capital limit cannot bite and no income is tapered. A guarantee credit computed for a family that does not claim Pension Credit (`would_claim_pc`), or that PolicyEngine does not treat as eligible for it (`is_pension_credit_eligible`), does not count. The passport applies within the pension-age regulations (`housing_benefit_pension_age_regulations_apply`). `is_pension_credit_eligible` retains mixed-age couples covered by the [SI 2019/37 art. 4](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/37/article/4) saving through `meets_pension_credit_age_conditions`; these couples keep the passport when they receive Guarantee Credit. When Pension Credit is frozen, receipt follows the baseline award, including its Guarantee Credit component. Savings Credit alone follows the separate assessment in [reg. 27](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/214/regulation/27), including its capital limit, and does not give this passport.\n",
     "\n",

policyengine_uk/parameters/gov/dwp/housing_benefit/takeup.yaml

@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 description: Share of eligible Housing Benefit recipients that participate. Not used by
   the model, which takes Housing Benefit take-up from reported claims in survey data and
   assumes full take-up in household calculations. Pension-age families can make new
-  claims; working-age families only continue existing awards.
+  claims; working-age families only continued existing awards, until those were
+  abolished on 1 July 2026 in Great Britain and 1 October 2026 in Northern Ireland.
 metadata:
   economy: false
   label: Housing benefit take-up rate

policyengine_uk/parameters/gov/dwp/housing_benefit/working_age_awards_payable.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+description: >-
+  Whether working-age Housing Benefit awards outside specified and temporary
+  accommodation are still payable (1) or abolished (0). Housing Benefit was
+  abolished for these awards from 1 July 2026 in Great Britain and 1 October
+  2026 in Northern Ireland; statutory savings are described in
+  housing_benefit_payable_share. Annual formulas read parameters once, at the
+  start of the model year, after fiscal-year conversion. Parameters normally
+  sample 30 April, but these numeric flags use fiscal_year_blend to take the
+  day-weighted average from 6 April to 5 April. In a Simulation reform
+  dictionary a bare year overrides the whole fiscal year, while a key dated
+  inside the year (for example 2026-07-01) leaves that model year's value
+  unchanged. Use whole-year values or a date range for annual reform scenarios.
+great_britain:
+  description: Whether working-age Housing Benefit awards outside specified and temporary accommodation are still payable in Great Britain. Section 33(1)(d) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 came into force for them on 1 July 2026.
+  values:
+    1988-04-01: 1
+    2026-07-01: 0
+  metadata:
+    label: Working-age housing benefit awards payable in Great Britain
+    unit: /1
+    period: year
+    fiscal_year_blend: true
+    reference:
+      - title: SI 2025/1148 art. 7 (inserted by SI 2026/409 art. 2(6))
+        href: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/1148/article/7
+      - title: SI 2026/409, The Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 35) (Abolition of Benefits) (Amendment) Order 2026
+        href: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/409/made
+      - title: Welfare Reform Act 2012 s. 33(1)(d)
+        href: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/5/section/33
+      - title: DWP HB circular A6/2026, closure of working age Housing Benefit
+        href: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-benefit-adjudication-circulars-2026/a62026-closure-of-working-age-housing-benefit
+northern_ireland:
+  description: Whether working-age Housing Benefit awards outside specified and temporary accommodation are still payable in Northern Ireland. Article 39(1)(d) of the Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 came into operation for them on 1 October 2026.
+  values:
+    1988-04-01: 1
+    2026-10-01: 0
+  metadata:
+    label: Working-age housing benefit awards payable in Northern Ireland
+    unit: /1
+    period: year
+    fiscal_year_blend: true
+    reference:
+      - title: SR 2025/176 art. 7 (inserted by SR 2026/115)
+        href: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2025/176/article/7
+      - title: SR 2026/115
+        href: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2026/115/made
+      - title: Welfare Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 2015 art. 39(1)(d)
+        href: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/2015/2006/article/39
+metadata:
+  label: Working-age housing benefit awards payable
+  economy: false

policyengine_uk/programs.yaml

@@ -224,12 +224,12 @@ programs:
     full_name: Housing Benefit
     category: Benefits
     agency: DWP
-    status: complete
+    status: partial
     coverage: UK
     variable: housing_benefit
     parameter_prefix: gov.dwp.housing_benefit
     verified_start_year: 2022
-    notes: Legacy benefit being replaced by Universal Credit
+    notes: Legacy benefit replaced by Universal Credit. Working-age abolition applies from 1 July 2026 (GB) and 1 October 2026 (NI). An explicit specified-or-temporary-accommodation input preserves payable awards and new claims alongside UC without UC rent support; datasets do not supply it. The protected mixed-age saving is inferred from current receipt. Other historical savings and accommodation-specific eligible-rent and benefit-cap rules are not modelled.
 
   - id: income_support
     name: Income Support

policyengine_uk/tests/policy/baseline/finance/benefit/family/housing_benefit/applicable_income/housing_benefit_specified_or_temporary_accommodation_disregard.yaml

@@ -768,6 +768,9 @@
       benunit:
         members: [person]
         would_claim_uc: false
+        # Its award is abolished in 2027; it does not claim Universal Credit
+        # then, so it is not passported.
+        would_claim_uc_at_legacy_closure: false
         guarantee_credit: 0
         housing_benefit_applicable_amount: 4_968.60
     households:

policyengine_uk/tests/policy/baseline/finance/benefit/family/housing_benefit/housing_benefit_earnings_disregards.yaml

@@ -84,6 +84,9 @@
       benunit:
         members: [person]
         would_claim_uc: false
+        # Does not claim Universal Credit when the award is abolished, so the
+        # award continues until then.
+        would_claim_uc_at_legacy_closure: false
         # Working age, so no Pension Credit; set so that no form of the
         # Guarantee Credit passport can apply.
         guarantee_credit: 0

policyengine_uk/tests/policy/baseline/finance/benefit/family/housing_benefit/housing_benefit_eligible.yaml

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# Continuing-award route for a working-age family (age defaults to 40) in
+# 2021, before working-age awards were abolished: a reported award, no
+# Universal Credit claim, and social housing or the Local Housing Allowance.
+
 - name: Social housing eligible
   period: 2021
   input: