COMMUNITY HOUSING CRA RENT CALCULATOR
USER MANUAL
Produced by
Community and Private Market Housing Directorate
Housing NSW
September 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
The manual ...................................................................................................................... 1
2
Overview .......................................................................................................................... 2
3
The calculator worksheet ................................................................................................. 3
4
Report, summary report and detail report worksheets ...................................................... 8
5
Phase-in (capping) worksheet ........................................................................................ 10
6
Rent estimation for other families/income units .............................................................. 14
7
Centrelink worksheet ...................................................................................................... 15
8
Other rent calculator tips and policy advice .................................................................... 15
1 The Manual
The Community Housing Rent Policy sets out Housing NSW’s requirements around rent
arrangements that community housing providers need to comply with in NSW. The Rent
Policy was revised in July 2008 and updated in July 2010. One of the major policy changes is
the full collection of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) in rent.
The tool designed to assess CRA-based rent is the Community Housing CRA Rent Calculator
(the Calculator). This Manual will guide you through the various worksheets used in the
calculator and give you tips on data entry and analysis.
The Manual does not explain the Community Housing Rent Policy in detail and if you need
more specific information you should refer to the Policy itself. For more information about
Australian Government payments/allowances and eligibility for Commonwealth Rent
Assistance, you should refer to A Guide to Australian Government Payments published by
Centrelink.
This Manual is a useful resource for community housing staff who do rent assessments and/or
reviews.
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2 Overview
Rents in community housing are income based. The amount of rent a household pays
depends on the income type and age of the people who live there. Rent is also based on the
number of families (income units) in the household. However, the total rent charged for the
household cannot exceed the market rent for the property.
The Calculator is based on a large number of worksheets. Most of them are hidden as they
use formulae and complex calculations that could possibly confuse users if they try to interpret
them. The following worksheets are visible and allow the user to simply enter the required
information and find out the correct rent for tenants.
Worksheet
Instruction
Description
Explains the contents of the calculator and gives tips on using it.
Glossary
Brief description of the terms used in the calculator.
Calculator
All the inputs needed to estimate rent must be entered into this worksheet.
Report
Gives a brief profile of the household and the rent charged under the
current rent policy. The report is in an easy-to-print format and can be
given to tenants.
Summary report
The report page is generated from the summary report. As this is not in a
printable format please do not try to print it.
Detail report
This gives the rents under the:
1. old rent policy
2. current rent policy (before and after phase-in/capping).
CAP
This worksheet explains the phase-in process in estimating rent for existing
tenants. ‘Existing’ tenants are community housing tenants who commenced
a tenancy managed by housing associations before 1 July 2008, and a
tenancy managed by housing co-operatives prior to 1 February 2009. All
other tenancies are considered ‘new’ tenancies.
Family 1–5
The information entered in the ‘calculator’ worksheet is automatically used
in the respective family/income-unit worksheets to calculate the rent for
each family/income unit.
Centrelink
The Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and
maintenance income rates used to estimate rent are given in this
worksheet.
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3 The Calculator-worksheet
This is the data input worksheet in the CRA Rent Calculator. The Calculator is set up to work
out rents from various sources of income, such as government payments/allowances and
wages. Some information is gathered at the person level and other data at the family/incomeunit level.
The following cells in the Calculator-worksheet must be filled in to calculate the household
rent.
Rent effective from: This is the start date for the newly assessed rent.
Step 1: Market rent is the maximum rent payable for each property. To find out market rent,
community housing providers should use the latest private rent data (i.e. median rents) which
is published quarterly in the Housing NSW Rent and Sales Report.
Step 2: ‘Existing Tenant’ is anyone who already held a community housing tenancy before the
revised Community Housing Rent Policy came into effect. Specific provisions apply to existing
tenants when assessing their CRA-based rents. They are explained below.
‘New Tenant’ is anyone who starts a tenancy after the revised Community Housing Rent
Policy comes into effect for the provider. ‘New Tenant’ also refers to anyone who is
transferred from public to community housing.
Step 3: The ‘date when the CRA-based rent policy is first applied’ refers to the date when the
revised Rent Policy was applied to an existing tenant for the first time; usually at the first rent
review after the revised policy became effective. For example, if you started applying the
CRA-based rent policy on 19 September 2008, then this is the date when you first applied the
revised Rent Policy. This date marks the anniversary of the phase-in arrangement (this is
explained in the section on year two phase-in).You only have to answer this question if
you have selected ‘Existing Tenant’ under Step 2. This question is not relevant for new
tenants.
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Step 4: The ‘Cap Amount’ is usually set at $10 per week and should never exceed this
amount. This step shows whether phase-in provisions should apply for existing tenants.
Please refer to the phase-in section of this manual for more information. You only have to
answer this question if you have selected ‘Existing Tenant’ under Step 2.
Step 5: Answer ‘Yes’ if phasing-in (capping) is no longer required. Answer ‘No’ if phasing-in
(capping) has to continue. Please refer to the phase-in section of this Manual for more
information. You only have to answer this question if you have selected ‘Existing
Tenants’ under Step 2.
Step 6: Shows the number of family groups in the household. It is very important to answer
this question correctly because it will determine the CRA amounts that the whole household
receives. There can be more than one family group in a household. The calculator is designed
to capture information for up to five families/income units in one household (i.e. up to five
family groups living in one household). This question must be answered for both new and
existing tenants.
Step 7: Information is gathered at the person level for all household members.
The principal tenant (i.e. the tenant holding the lease agreement) should be listed first. The
tenant’s partner, if any, should be listed second and then other household members.
When you enter a name and the date of birth, the age field will be populated automatically. It
is important that you select the right relationship between the tenant and the other household
members.
The Clean Energy Supplement (CES) is paid fortnightly to eligible income support payment
recipients from 20 March 2013, FTB-A and FTB-B recipients from 01 July 2013, and is treated
as assessable income for rent purposes. For each person in receipt of Clean Energy
Supplement, the Supplement is to be shown as a separate income in a separate row in Step
7. CES for all the payments (including CES for FTB-A & FTB-B) is assessed at the person’s
usual assessment rate. Please note that CES for FTB-A and FTB-B are not assessed at 15%
as for FTB-A & FTB-B payments. Clean Energy supplement for FTB-A and FTB-B should be
entered in separate rows in Step 7 and not in step 8.
The ‘care %’ column refers to the shared care percentages where parents are separated and
share the care of their children. The care percentage is usually shown on the client’s Income
Support Statement from Centrelink.
As soon as child details are entered (i.e. date of birth) the care percentage rate will default to
100%. This rate can be changed to the actual rate under the ‘given’ column, which will then be
automatically updated in the effective rate box under the ‘effective’ column.
The care percentage usually affects the amount of Family Tax Benefit and Child Support
payments.
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In the income cell you should include any statutory and/or non-statutory income, excluding
maintenance, Family Tax Benefit and CRA.
The ‘Rent %’ column refers to the subsidised rate percentage that applies when assessing
rent that tenants’ pay from their own income. The rent assessment rate is set at 25%.
However, you can change this, if appropriate, to the actual rate under the ‘given’ column (e.g.
for some housing programs, rent rate could be set at 30% of income). This will then switch the
effective rate under the ‘Effective’ column, as shown in the example below. For more
information about rent assessment rates please refer to the Community Housing Rent Policy.
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The last column under Step 7 is the ‘Family Unit No.’ column. This is where you should assign
a number against each member of the household depending on their family situation. Usually
single people, couples or parents with dependent children form one family unit. In another
situation, where a couple shares housing with a grown-up child, who receives a Centrelink
payment, the parents should be treated as family unit one and the grown-up child treated as
family unit 2. These two family units may each be entitled to receive CRA.
Step 8: Information is captured separately for each family/income unit. Under Step 8 providers
collect additional data necessary to assess rent accurately.
a) Firstly, you need to select the correct family type for each family unit. Accurate selection is
important because it will determine the amount of CRA to be paid to a particular family
unit. Incorrect selection of the family type may result in differences between the CRA that
the rent calculator estimates and the actual CRA that Centrelink pays. Please remember
that the rent calculator cannot recognise family types automatically. If you are unsure
which family type to select for a family unit then please refer to A Guide to Australian
Government Payments. This can be downloaded from Department of Human Services’
website at www.humanservices.gov.au.
b) Secondly, the ‘Last Rent’ paid (i.e. the current rent the tenant pays) and the ‘CRA
Legislated amount’ on that rent is only needed for family/income units who receive child
support payments/maintenance or those who are not getting any income support
payments. The legislated amount refers to the amount that the family/income unit is
eligible to receive, without any adjustments for deductions or back payments to Centrelink.
Sometimes the CRA amount entered may be too high for the ‘Last Rent’ that the
family/income unit paid. In that case, the ‘No’ message under the ‘Sufficient info provided’
column will appear, as shown in the example next page. In this example, based on $150 rent
per week, the tenant is only eligible for $32.73, and not $72.03 CRA.
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When the CRA amount is adjusted to $32.73, the ‘Yes’ message will appear in the ‘Sufficient
info provided’ column and the calculation can proceed further.
There are different reasons why some families/income units receive more CRA than they appear
to be entitled to. It could be due to the information declared on the rent certificate when they last
claimed CRA.
c) In the ‘Any Income Support Payment’ column you should select ‘Yes’ if the family/income unit
receives any payment/allowance paid under the Social Security Act 1991. Usually, most
Centrelink payments are paid under this Act, except Family Tax Benefit payments, which are
paid under the Family Assistance Act 1999. If the family/income unit does not get any
Centrelink payments, but they earn wages from employment, you should select ‘No’.
d) If the family/income unit is eligible for CRA you should select ‘Yes’ under the ‘CRA Eligibility’
column. The calculator will then estimate the amount of CRA Centrelink will pay and include
that in the rent. If you select ‘no’ the calculator will exclude CRA from the rent calculation
assuming that the family/income unit is not eligible for CRA.
e) Enter Family Tax Benefit A & B legislated (entitled) amounts, if any. You can get this data from
Centrelink’s Income Support Statement.
f)
Finally, enter the amount of child support received per annum, if any. This information is also in
the Income Support Statement. This amount is important because it determines the reduction
in Family Tax Benefit and CRA, if required. Under ‘Type’ select ‘Single’ if the child support is
paid to a single parent household, or ‘Couple’ if the child support is paid to a couple household.
Then enter the number of additional children over and above the first child for whom the child
support is received (i.e. if the tenant gets child support for three children then the number of
additional children will be ‘2’, or ‘0’ if the tenant receives child support for one child only).
When you have entered all the required information in the calculator page you can go straight
to the ‘Report’ page for the rent assessment results.
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4 Report, Summary Report and Detail Report worksheets
Three worksheets are available for presenting the rent and its components in different level of
details by family/income units in the household.
The information in the ‘Report’ worksheet includes the tenant and other household member
names, assessment rates, weekly incomes and rents based on their individual incomes.
These worksheets also include the details of rent calculation for incomes from FTB (A & B),
maintenance and CRA.
The rents for multiple family/income units in a household are listed separately for each
family/income unit as shown below.
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The most comprehensive information is given in the ‘Detail Report’ worksheet. This includes
rent under the previous rent policy, current rent policy without the phase-in arrangement and
current rent policy with the phase-in arrangement.
The ‘Summary Report’ worksheet is a summary of the ‘Detail Report’ worksheet. It only gives
information on the effective/applicable rent. The information in the ‘Summary Report’ and the
‘Report’ worksheets is the same. However, the ‘Report’ worksheet is in an easy-to-print
format.
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5 Phase-in (CAP) worksheet
Note: Phase-in arrangement applies to existing tenants only and not for new tenants.
Refer to Step 3 (page 3) or ‘Glossary’ worksheet of the Calculator.
Phase-in arrangement is implemented to reduce the financial impact of the rent policy
changes on existing community housing tenants. The phase-in arrangement ensures that the
after-housing income of existing tenants is not reduced by any more than $10 per week per
year since the CRA Based Rent Policy is first applied as a result of the rent policy changes.
The phase-in arrangement, however, is not required for tenants where the total household
income is going to be reduced by $10 or less per week when the rent changes are first
introduced, as CRA is already fully collected in this assessment. Once this happens, providers
do not need to reinstate the phase-in process even when the tenant’s financial situation
changes in future.
Below is an example where phase-in is not needed because the after-housing income is
decreased by $16.18 due to the revised rent policy. The CRA Based Rent policy is first
applied for this tenant on 14-Sep-2008 and the maximum allowable amount in the reduction of
after housing income on the rent effective data (as at 21-Sep-2013) is $60.00 per week. The
$60.00 is derived as follows:
Date
14-Sep-2008
14- Sep-2009
14- Sep-2010
14- Sep-2011
14- Sep-2012
14- Sep-2013
Maximum weekly allowable amount in
the reduction of after housing income
$10.00
$20.00
$30.00
$40.00
$50.00
$60.00
For tenants whose after-housing income is reduced by more than $10 per week per year
during rent assessments, the phase-in provisions will continue to apply until CRA is fully
collected. This may take up to several years depending on the household structure.
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To ensure that phase-in provisions are applied Steps 2 to 5 in the Calculator-worksheet must
be answered correctly.
The CAP worksheet in the rent calculator provides detail data to compare rent under both the
old and the Revised Rent Policy and any rent adjustments needed where the after-housing
income is reduced by more than $10 per week per year since CRA Based Rent Policy is first
applied.
In the example below, the calculation shows that the after-housing income for the household
is reduced by $65.54 per week, which is more than the maximum allowable amount in the
reduction of after housing income of $60 per week. Even though a total household CRA-based
rent should be $260.19 per week, the provider cannot charge this rent in year five because the
after-housing income is reduced by more than $60 per week. An adjustment to this rent is
therefore needed.
The next diagram shows the rent adjusted to $254.65 per week to ensure that the household’s
after-housing income is reduced by $60 per week under the revised Rent Policy. When the
capping is entered correctly you will get a message ‘Acceptable’ highlighted in blue.
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The previous example shows that the phase-in arrangement will continue until 19-Sep-2014
and thereafter the tenant will be charged the full amount of $260.19 as assessed provided the
household income and structure remains same
Rent assessment – phase-in (capping) in subsequent assessments
The $10 cap in contributions for existing tenants should continue for those tenants where the
CRA is not fully captured yet. Phase-in provisions may continue for some years depending
largely on the household structure and income situation.
Phase-in arrangements do not apply to new tenants, as CRA should have been fully collected
in their first rent assessment. In later rent assessments, as shown below, providers should
classify these tenants as ‘Existing Tenants’ under Step 2, and enter ‘Yes’ under Step 5 to
show that CRA was fully collected in the previous rent review.
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To ensure accurate assessment of rents providers need to enter the date when the CRAbased rent policy was first applied under Step 3 in the Calculator-worksheet. This is the date
of the first rent assessment/review for the specific tenant after the revised Rent Policy comes
into effect. The cap amount under Step 4 should always remain at $10 regardless of the year
of phase-in.
In year six the $10 per week cap will increase to $60 per week per year in the background
calculation. This means that the after-housing income will be reduced by $60 per week when
compared to the rent arrangements before the revised Rent Policy.
For example, if CRA-based rent is fully applied, weekly rent would be $260.19 but the tenant’s
after-housing income would be reduced by $65.54 ($637.23 minus $571.69). In this instance,
the calculator will adjust the rent to ensure that the after-housing income is reduced by no
more than $60 per week in the sixth year. Therefore, the weekly rent is adjusted to $254.65.
The phase-in arrangement would continue for the next year until CRA is fully collected.
However, changes in household income and structure may change over time which could also
affect whether phase-in arrangements need to continue.
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6
Rent estimation for other families/income units
Information needed to estimate rent for other families/income units, aside from the principal
tenant, is entered into the respective family worksheets. A similar procedure to that used for
the first family/income unit is used to calculate the rent for these families. The rent is worked
out under both the previous and current rent policies.
Market rent is used to estimate what the actual rent will be for all the families/income-units in
the household. Firstly, the rent for the first family/income unit is deducted from the initial
market rent. Then, the remaining amount becomes the market rent for the second
family/income unit. Market rent for the third family/income unit is the remainder after deducting
the rent for the first and second family/income units from the initial market rent. Market rent for
the fourth and fifth families/income units is calculated in the same way.
Family 1–5 worksheets
Family worksheets provide detailed data about the income used and relevant thresholds
applied to calculate rent for a particular family group/income unit. These worksheets are
included as reference material only and it is not recommended that they be given to tenants.
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7 Centrelink worksheet
The CRA, FTB and maintenance income rates used to estimate rent are given in this
worksheet. CRA rates are indexed in March and September each year. The Community and
Private Market Housing Directorate in Housing NSW regularly updates the information in this
worksheet. You are advised to refer to the most recent version of the CRA Rent Calculator for
current CRA rates. When this happens, the updated version of the Calculator will be circulated
to all relevant community housing providers.
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Other rent calculator tips and policy advice
New tenants who get child support without previous rental history
For existing tenants and those with a previous rental history (either public housing or private
rental), this information may be easy to find. However, where new tenants who receive child
support do not have a prior rental history, providers should adopt the following procedure
when assessing their CRA-based rent.
Step 1: The tenant’s rent contribution should be assessed based on their income excluding
CRA (i.e. 25% income plus 15% FTB). The tenant should then apply for CRA at Centrelink
and tell the provider once they have done so. This process will generate a record of the ‘last
rent’ received and the ‘CRA amount’ paid on that rent.
Step 2: Once the tenant has applied for CRA and the amount is included on their Income
Support Statement, the provider should re-assess the rent as CRA-based rent at 100% CRA
collection. The tenant’s rent does not have to be backdated or adjusted.
This process will create the least negative financial impact on tenants.
Sharer provisions
The amount of CRA entitlement is generally based on the level of rent payment and the family
situation of the client. Most of the family situations are self explanatory. However, the category
of ‘single sharer’ needs further explanation.
Single CRA recipients who share their accommodation with others are only entitled to a
maximum rate of CRA that is two-thirds of that for singles living alone.
Sharers’ classification
A sharer is a person who receives a Centrelink payment and must meet the following criteria:

single

without dependent children

not in an exempt category of person or accommodation (see below)

have a legal right to share a major area (i.e. bathroom, kitchen or bedroom) of their
accommodation with others.
Exempt income support recipients
The following groups of income support recipients are NOT affected by sharers’ provisions:

boarders and lodgers

Disability Support Pension recipients

Carer Payment recipients

recipients in nursing homes

single parents sharing accommodation ONLY with their recipient children

singles living in a caravan, boat or mobile home on their own

people who live in exempt accommodation.
Exempt accommodation
Exempt accommodation is considered to be a:








boarding house
guest house
rooming house
lodging house
hostel
hotel
private hotel
similar premises.
More information can be found on the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services
and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) website in the Guide to Social Security Law – 3.8.1.110
Sharers Provisions for Rent Assistance.
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Department of Veterans’ Affairs recipients and rent assistance
People eligible for a service pension or income support supplement are eligible to receive rent
assistance paid through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Most service pensioners who
pay rent and have dependent children will have their rent assistance paid by the Family
Assistance Office as part of their Family Tax Benefit.
People who receive a Special Rate Disability Pension (SRDP) payable under the Military
Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA) are not eligible for rent assistance.
Disability pensions paid under the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA) are not counted as
income when calculating a person’s service pension and income support supplement.
However, those payments can affect the amount of rent assistance payable. Other
Department of Veterans’ Affairs payments may directly or indirectly affect the amount of rent
assistance received.
People must pay a minimum amount of rent (lower threshold) before they can be paid rent
assistance. For every $1 of rent paid above the lower threshold tenants will receive $0.75 of
rent assistance, up to a maximum amount.
The amount of rent assistance included when calculating the income support supplement is
not reduced by a person’s war widow’s or widower’s pension. However, this pension is
included in the income test used to assess the amount of income support supplement they will
get. The income test will, in some cases, reduce the amount of rent assistance.
For more information contact the Department of Veteran’s Affairs on 133 254.
Assessing rent for joint tenants
In cases of a joint tenancy, where both people are on the Residential Tenancy Agreement,
you should run a separate rent assessment for each tenant. This ensures the process is fair
and that they both pay their share of the rent.
You will need to split the market rent between the two tenants. For example, if the total market
rent for the property is $300 per week, you will apply $150 market rent for each tenant when
running separate rent assessments. Secondly, for existing tenants (if applicable) you should
split the cap amount to $5 for each tenant, so that the total after-housing household income
does not decrease by more than $10 per week.
The example below shows the rent calculation for tenant one. The same method should be
used for tenant two.
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Further support
For further advice on the Community Housing Rent Policy contact John Hyde in the
Community and Private Market Housing Directorate at john.hyde@facs.nsw.gov.au or on (02)
8753 9547.
For further assistance with rent calculations and questions about the CRA Rent Calculator
contact Helen Tighe in the Community and Private Market Housing Directorate at
Helen.Tighe@facs.nsw.gov.au or on (02) 8753 9004.
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