About households and family members (2024)

What is a household?

One household is made up of family members, a couple, two unrelated people sharing the same home or a single person.

Unrelated adults who are not a couple or part of a family are separate households.

A house in multiple occupation (HMO) is a property lived in by people from different households. For example:

• a family and a friend renting together
• more than two students sharing a house
• more than two professional friends sharing a flat
• multiple casual workers each renting a separate room in a house

These households all share amenities like kitchens and bathrooms.

Who is a family member?

A person is a member of another person’s family if:

• he or she lives with that person as a couple
• one of them is related to the other
• or is related to one member of the couple.

and where

• couple means two people who are married or in a civil partnership, or live together as partners
• relative means a parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece or first cousin
• siblings are treated the same whether they are half or whole brothers / sisters
• stepchildren are treated the same as birth children.