2024/25 is a 53 week year
What a 53 week year means for rent payment?
BHA charges your rent weekly. There are 52 weeks in a normal year, but BHA only issues 50 weekly charges for rent as every BHA customer gets two weeks rent free in December every year. So, instead of 52 weekly charges for rent you get 50 weekly charges.
Every five to six years, there are 53 Mondays in a year instead. 2024/2025 is one of these years. This means there is an extra one week of rent charged rather than the usual 50 weeks – so we will need to charge 51 weekly charges.
This means if you pay your rent weekly, there will be an extra week of rent to pay and if you pay rent monthly, you’ll need to adjust your calculations to ensure this extra week is covered, or you could fall into rent arrears.
The rent letter you received from us in February tells you your weekly rent amount between 1 April 2024, and 31 March 2025. Working out your monthly payments is a little different this year.
How to calculate my monthly rent?
Multiply your weekly rent amount by 51, then divide by 12.
Usually, you’d multiply by 50 and divide by 12, but this year it’s 51.
Simply multiplying by four (4 weeks) will not give you the right monthly amount.
How does this affect me?
You may need to make a change to your payments depending on how you pay your rent.
When calculating Universal Credit (UC), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) work out monthly rent by multiplying a week’s rent by 50 weeks due to the 2 non charging weeks and dividing by 12. This is the case even when there is an extra week in the year.
This means that your monthly UC payments will not cover the monthly rent in 2024/2025. So, you will need to work out the shortfall and pay this.
52 Week Year: Rent £103.16 per week X 50 weeks charges divided by 12 months = Monthly payment due £429.83 (what DWP will pay)
53 Week Year: Rent £103.16 per week X 51 weeks charges divided by 12 months = Monthly payment due £438.43 (monthly rental due)
Difference of £8.60 p/mth which equates to £103.20 p/year
If you receive Universal Credit, the Department for Work and Pensions will NOT cover the extra week of rent – you will need to pay it.
If you are on Housing Benefits (HB), you will not be impacted by this, as HB will cover this as they pay every week that it is charged.
What do I need to do?
Universal Credit (UC) has confirmed that they will not pay for the 53rd week. To avoid falling into arrears, you’ll need to pay a little extra each week to make sure your rent is covered for the additional week. Please contact us and we can help to set up a payment arrangement to suit your circumstances.
If you pay by Direct Debit, you don’t need to do anything. We’ll do this calculation for you and automatically adjust your payments.
You’ll need to contact your bank to change the amount you pay. Please contact us and we can work out your new rent charge.
You’ll need to change the amount you pay. Please contact us and we can work out your new rent charge.
If you pay weekly, there is no change. You’ll pay your new weekly rent from 1st April in advance every Monday.
Contact us for help and advice
We know this might seem complicated, so if you have any questions or if you’re not sure what to do, please call us on 0800 652 8104. We can offer advice according to your individual circumstance and help you set up a new payment arrangement if needed. We’re here to help – get in touch today.
What can customers do if they are not happy about Universal Credit not covering the 53rd week?
Unfortunately, there is nothing BHA can do as affected customers will still be responsible and liable to pay the extra week of rent Universal Credit won’t cover. If you do have problems with your rent, please do get in touch with us so that our Tenancy Sustainability team can provide you with the necessary support you may need.