In FRS shared households (HHSTAT 2), HHRENT is the rent of the whole dwelling. The dataset puts all of it on the household, and policyengine-uk then gives it to the household head. The other benefit units that pay part of the rent (SRENTAMT, HBOTHAMT) get none, so they get no Universal Credit housing costs element or Housing Benefit.
The FRS derived variable BURENT cannot be used to split the rent. In the 2023-24 and 2024-25 releases, its shared-household values give the later units all of HHRENT between them and benefit unit 1 a further amount. The units' BURENT sums to about 2.5 times HHRENT (2024-25: £12.7bn against £5.0bn).
Proposal: store a benefit-unit flag liable_for_share_of_household_rent for later units of shared households that report SRENTAMT or HBOTHAMT, and let policyengine-uk split rent per person liable (PolicyEngine/policyengine-uk#2006).
In FRS shared households (HHSTAT 2), HHRENT is the rent of the whole dwelling. The dataset puts all of it on the household, and policyengine-uk then gives it to the household head. The other benefit units that pay part of the rent (SRENTAMT, HBOTHAMT) get none, so they get no Universal Credit housing costs element or Housing Benefit.
The FRS derived variable BURENT cannot be used to split the rent. In the 2023-24 and 2024-25 releases, its shared-household values give the later units all of HHRENT between them and benefit unit 1 a further amount. The units' BURENT sums to about 2.5 times HHRENT (2024-25: £12.7bn against £5.0bn).
Proposal: store a benefit-unit flag
liable_for_share_of_household_rentfor later units of shared households that report SRENTAMT or HBOTHAMT, and let policyengine-uk splitrentper person liable (PolicyEngine/policyengine-uk#2006).