Do I need to pay more during a 53-week year?
If your charges are raised weekly or fortnightly, a 53-week year will affect your rent and charges. What you need to do depends on your agreement and what method you use to pay us – it’s all explained below.
If your charges are raised monthly, quarterly, bi-monthly or yearly, the 53-week year will not affect you, and you don’t need to read this page.
How does a 53-week year happen?
There are 365 days in a year. This is equivalent to 52 whole weeks and one day, or two days in a leap year. Over time, these extra days build up until a whole extra week to the rent year, (for weekly and fortnightly customers). This happens every five or six years.
The next 53-week year is 2024-2025.
In the 2024/25 financial year, which runs from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, there will be 53 Mondays. The first Monday is 1 April 2024. The last Monday is 31 March 2025.
Information for weekly customers
If you are charged weekly, you’ll have an additional week’s rent and service charges applied to your account. Instead of 52 charges, you’ll need to pay 53 instead.
The 53-week year begins on 1 April 2024 and ends on 31 March 2025.
How this will affect your payment depends on how you normally pay us your rent. This information does not include any arrears or prepayments on your account.
If you pay by monthly Direct Debit, we’ll update your payment automatically taking the full 53 weeks into account. You don’t need to take any action.
You’ll need to manually update your standing order or allpay payment to include charges for week 53. For example, if your rent and service charges are £100 per week you would use the following calculation: £100 x 53 weeks divided by 12 month = £441.67
You’ll need to update your four-weekly standing order or allpay payment as normal. For example, if your rent and service charges are £100 per week, you would use the following calculation: £100 x 4 weeks = £400.
The DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) will only pay up to 52 weeks of rent and service charges per year, and won’t pay for week 53. This means you will need to pay for the additional week yourself.
If this impacts you, we can help you set up a payment plan, where you pay a little extra each week during a 53-week year to cover the extra week to avoid going into arrears. Please contact us by email to arrange a payment plan.
We’ll automatically update your Direct Debit payment, taking the extra week’s charges into account.
If you receive Housing Benefit, you don’t need to do anything – charges for all 53 weeks will be automatically covered.
Information for fortnightly customers
In a 53-week year, customers who have their rent calculated fortnightly must pay the additional week’s rent and service charges.
How this will affect your payment depends on how you normally pay us your rent. This information does not include any arrears or prepayments on your account.
If you pay monthly by Direct Debit, we’ll update your payment automatically taking the full 53 weeks into account.
We will do this by taking the weekly equivalent charge into account. For example, if your fortnightly rent and service charges are £200, we’ll use the following calculation: £200 divided by 2 = £100 per week x 53 weeks divided by 12 months = £441.67.
You’ll need to manually update your standing order or allpay payment to include charges for week 53.
For example, if your rent and service charges are £200 every fortnight, you would use the following calculation:
£200 divided by 2 = £100 per week x 53 weeks divided by 12 months = £441.67.
You’ll need to update your four-weekly standing order or allpay payment as normal. For example, if your rent and service charges are £200 per fortnight, you would use the following calculation: £200 x 2 = £400.
The DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) will only pay up to 52 weeks of rent and service charges per year, and won’t pay for week 53.
This means you will need to pay for the additional week yourself.
If you’re worried about how this might affect your budget, we can help you set up a payment plan. Instead of paying for the extra week in one go, you’ll pay a little extra a week during the year which covers the cost of week 53.
Please contact us by email to arrange a payment plan.
In a 53-week year, we’ll automatically update your Direct Debit payment taking the extra week’s charges into account.
If you receive Housing Benefit you don’t need to do anything – charges for all 53 weeks will be automatically covered.
