Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit is a means tested social security benefit in the United Kingdom that is intended to help with the costs of rent. 
Rent rebates, as they were called, started in the 1930s when council houses were built to clear slums. The rents were often to high for the poor people who had lived in the slums. Local councils made their own arrangements. The first national system started in 1972. It covered rates as well as rent. For people in private housing it was called rent allowance. People who got Supplementary Benefit had all their rent paid. People who had more money than that still got some help. By 1983 about 30% of the population were getting Housing Benefit. After 1986 it was lined up with the rules for Income Support. 
The cost of housing for low-income households has risen a lot. The cost of Housing Benefit rose from 0.2% of GDP in 1980-81 to 1.0% in 2012-13. 
From 2019 housing benefit was moved into Universal Credit except for people above State Pension age and people living in supported, sheltered or temporary housing. in 2022 2 million private renting households, 38% of the total, were getting help with rent from either Universal Credit or Housing Benefit.