The Department for Work and Pensions has laid a correcting instrument, the Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2026. It was made at 9.15am and laid before Parliament at 2.30pm on 7 September 2026, extends to England and Wales and Scotland, and is due to come into force on 2 October 2026. (policyindex.ai) The instrument states that it was made because of defects in S.I. 2026/753 and will be issued free of charge to all known recipients of that earlier legislation. The key point is that this is not a new entitlement, but a corrective measure designed to make an earlier entitlement work as intended. (policyindex.ai)
The procedural notes are also relevant. The text records that the Social Security Advisory Committee agreed the proposals did not need to be referred to it, and that the Secretary of State consulted organisations seen as representative of the authorities concerned. (policyindex.ai) That places the amendment in a familiar category of corrective social security legislation: narrow in drafting, but material in effect because local authorities need precise wording to assess claims consistently. (policyindex.ai)
The most technical change is a substituted paragraph in regulation 2 of the July 2026 regulations. According to the Explanatory Note, the September instrument ensures that the new disregard inserted as paragraph 18 of Schedule 4 to the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 is also counted when applying the disregard threshold in paragraph 17(3). (policyindex.ai) In plain English, the correction repairs a missing connection inside the Housing Benefit calculation rules. Without that link, the new disregard could have sat awkwardly alongside the pre-existing threshold test, leaving room for inconsistent reading. (policyindex.ai)
The claimant group remains tightly defined. The corrected rule applies to people resident in accommodation described by paragraphs 3A or 3B of Schedule 1 to the Universal Credit Regulations 2013. Government material on the wider July reform presents that group as supported housing and temporary accommodation claimants. (gov.uk) Earlier legislation shows what that means in practice. Paragraph 3A covers specified accommodation, including exempt accommodation and some supported settings such as refuges and hostels with care, support or supervision, while paragraph 3B covers certain local authority temporary accommodation used to meet or prevent homelessness duties. (legislation.gov.uk)
The substantive widening of scope sits in the eligibility test. The Explanatory Note says the correction ensures the new disregard applies to lone parents and removes the requirement for the claimant to be in 'remunerative work', which carries a minimum average hours condition. The new drafting instead requires the claimant, or their partner, to be an employed earner or self-employed earner. (policyindex.ai) That is a meaningful adjustment rather than a drafting footnote. It lowers the risk that claimants with earnings, especially lone parents and households where only one partner is working, miss out because they do not meet a narrower hours-based condition. (policyindex.ai)
The amendment also clarifies how the disregard operates for couples. Where a claimant has a partner, the disregard is not simply duplicated; it can extend to the partner only where, and to the extent that, the claimant’s own earnings do not absorb the full amount. The instrument also spells out the correct age-based treatment where both members of a couple are under 18. (policyindex.ai) The weekly figures now set out in the corrected text are £61.41 for a single claimant under 25, £77.73 for a single claimant aged 25 or over, the same two rates for lone parents, £97.33 where both partners are under 18, £61.53 where one or both partners are at least 18 but both are under 25, and £119.70 where one or both partners are 25 or over. (policyindex.ai)
The wider policy background is the July 2026 Housing Benefit reform, which DWP said would make Housing Benefit operate more like Universal Credit for supported housing and temporary accommodation residents and affect around 315,000 people when it takes effect in October 2026. The original July instrument, S.I. 2026/753, is due to come into force on 5 October 2026, three days after this correcting instrument. (gov.uk) The final point is administrative rather than political. The Explanatory Note says no full impact assessment has been prepared because no significant effect on private or voluntary bodies is expected, but the correction is still important for councils and advisers: it gives a clearer legal basis for awards before the underlying reform starts. (policyindex.ai)