“It’s crazy how blatant they are,” he sighs. “Landlords just dodge the law in any way they can. They’ll just say they’ve not selected an application and that’s that.”
The union succeeded in obtaining an apology from the letting agency after this episode, after they entered the letting agency and refused to leave. Ultimately, the agent in question was fired. But this is not, campaigners and tenants have warned, an isolated case. They say landlords and letting agents in England are still turning away prospective tenants because they receive benefits, even though it’s now illegal.
“You’d previously see mass things like ‘no DSS,’ and tenants completely barred from renting if they were claiming housing benefits,” says Nye Jones of Generation Rent. “That’s now illegal. But for some landlords, it’s the default setting.”
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The Renters’ Rights Act, which came into force on 1 May 2026, makes it illegal for landlords and letting agents to refuse to let to someone, or put them off applying, because they receive benefits. Before that, courts had ruled that “No DSS” adverts could amount to indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
But the law does not necessarily mean that it doesn’t happen: “It’s definitely an issue,” says Jones.
Big Issue polled users on Reddit, and many blamed their receipt of benefits for their struggles to get housing.
“I’ve had issues when I worked and claimed PIP and then also when on enhanced UC and PIP. It’s caused a lot of housing instability for me,” one wrote.
“They always have [blocked tenants on benefits]. “No Social. No DSS”, added another.
One user – in receipt of PIP and local housing allowance – attributed their difficulty to find housing to stigma.
“Most agents and LLs have outright said no to me, even when I meet the affordability criteria for a one bed or a room in a HMO,” they told Big Issue. “And the ones who’ve provisionally said yes have asked me for a homeowner guarantor (which isn’t possible since none of my relatives are rich enough to own a house/pay a mortgage).”
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Why are benefits being rejected
There is still a stigma attached to claiming welfare, Jones says, which is “completely unfair”.
But the distinction between a landlord refusing someone because of their benefits and rejecting them because their income does not cover the rent can be difficult to untangle. Landlords can still assess prospective tenants on their finances, and applicants may be rejected during affordability checks.
“Especially in areas where there’s lots of competition for rented homes, a landlord doesn’t need to give a reason as to why they choose a tenant,” he adds.
The shortage of genuinely affordable homes is a major part of the problem. Local housing allowance, which determines the maximum housing benefit available to private renters, needs to be unfrozen, Generation Rent argues.
In the spring, it will be three years since housing benefit payments reflected local rents by next spring. In that time, record-high rents have outstripped benefits.
A recent Resolution Foundation report, Saving Private Renters, found that a low-income family renting a two-bedroom home with housing benefit now faces an average shortfall of £158 a month.
“There are so few homes that are affordable for people claiming housing benefit,” says Jones.
“It just leaves them with very few options, and often they’ll be going for homes where there will be a shortfall between their housing benefit and the rent, and a landlord is likely to choose someone who’s in work who would probably have less trouble paying the rent over a longer period of time.”
The Renters’ Rights Act was a positive step, he adds, but legislation alone cannot resolve the underlying problem if support doesn’t go up.
“It was a positive that the Renters’ Rights Act made this kind of discrimination illegal because it’s abhorrent to discriminate against people just because their income comes through housing benefit,” he said.
“But without addressing the broader structural issues and creating more affordable options for people claiming housing benefit, people are still going to have huge trouble finding somewhere to rent.”
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) said that landlords could not be criticised for doing an affordability check, but that discrimination was intolerable.
“Landlords can, and should, check that a tenant can afford the rent, and make an informed judgement about their likelihood of being able to sustain a tenancy long-term, but those checks must apply equally to everyone irrespective of an applicant’s source of income,” said Chris Norris, the NRLA’s Chief Policy Officer.
Like Generation Rent, Norris pointed to the LHA freeze as the culprit of much low-income housing instability.
“Unfortunately, the fact that successive governments have frozen local housing allowance rates means that, according to homelessness charity Crisis, just 1.9% of private rented homes are now affordable to people in receipt of housing benefit. It is therefore no wonder that many are struggling more than ever to access quality rented homes,”
“If the government is serious about tackling the housing crisis, it must unfreeze housing benefit from next April, so that it covers at least the cheapest 30% of rents in every area.”
Stigma against benefits recipients
The structural drivers are clear. But as the Leeds case shows, stigma around benefits still plays a large role.
Kate – who did not want her last name used – says landlords treat any form of support from the government with “suspicion” and “stigma”. The Bristol local was evicted when her landlord turned her flat into an Airbnb, and due to a job falling through at the last minute had no money for the first month’s rent and a deposit.
The council offered her a no-interest loan to cover both. Kate was overjoyed – but her relief was short-lived.
“I thought that was brilliant. I went and looked at various flats, and you know I explain I am a teacher. They liked me, they said we’re happy for you to rent. Then, as soon as I disclosed about the council helping me out, they basically turned me down.”
Around 10 landlords rejected Kate after she disclosed the council’s involvement. It’s not a benefit, so it’s not illegal, but she says it still felt “horrible.” Once she withheld information about the source of her deposit and rent, she says she was accepted.
“It felt like a kick in the teeth,” she adds. “No one would trust me just because I’d been offered help by the council.”
For Akhtar, the issue is also personal. He grew up in a privately rented flat in Scotland, and knows first hand the “attitude that some landlords have to lower income renters.”
“Mum was a single mum, and there were so many different issues with renting. She could never get anything sorted, and she was really struggling.”
He is sceptical that changes to the law have done good for tenants on benefits – but no one should accept discrimination.
“I think [landlords] will just become a bit more sly with it,” he said.
“But we want to expose them. How dare they stop someone from trying to find a safe home, from trying to provide a roof over their family’s head, just because they get benefits?”
“It’s punching down, and it’s unacceptable.”
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