In this chapter we look at how your income and capital are treated when housing benefit is being calculated if you (or your partner) are of working age. If you (and your partner) have reached pension age, see Chapter 21(25) for how your income and capital are treated. The rules in this chapter also apply to income-related employment and support allowance.

Income or capital? – Generally, it will be clear whether a particular resource is income or capital, although the distinction is not defined in the regulations. Where it is unclear, the general principle (developed in case law) is that payments of income recur periodically and do not include ad hoc payments, whereas capital payments are one-off and not linked to a particular period (although capital may be paid in instalments). In some cases, the rules treat capital as income (see 19 below ) and vice versa (see 35 below ).