Housing Benefit is a means tested social security benefit in the UK that is intended to help people with low incomes pay for rented accommodation. It is governed by various acts of Parliament - see, for example, The Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 . Operationally, the governing Regulations are statutory instruments arising from that Act. It is governed by one of two sets of regulations. For working age claimants it is governed by the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, but for those who have reached the qualifying age for Pension Credit, these are amended by The LHA and Information Sharing Regulations. The legislation to enable Local Housing Allowance was introduced under the Welfare Reform Act which received Royal Assent in May 2007. This provided for the national application of the LHA regime on 7 April 2008 and the introduction of the Employment Support Allowance, which replaced Incapacity Benefit.
