Section 8 annual recertification: how housing re-checks income

Section 8 recertification is the yearly check that keeps your voucher, which pays part of your rent, going. Your housing authority (the local housing office) sends a letter asking for proof of your income, savings and household. Send the papers by its date. The office uses them to reset what you pay, usually about 30% of your income after deductions.

What is annual recertification?

Annual recertification is a yearly check of your household. The building or housing office asks what everyone earns, what you own and who lives with you. Then it either resets your rent or confirms you still qualify.

It works differently in three kinds of housing:

• A Housing Choice Voucher, which most people call Section 8: the housing office pays part of your rent to a private landlord, and the check resets how much.
• Public housing, an apartment where the housing office is your landlord: the check resets your rent.
• A tax credit apartment, where the rent is limited and doesn't follow your income: the check confirms you still qualify.

How often does it happen?

At least once a year for vouchers. Federal rules make the housing office check your income and household at least once a year. The same goes for public housing when the rent follows your income. In public housing, you can choose a flat rent, a set rent that doesn't follow your income. Then the office checks who lives with you every year, but your income only every three years.

Tax credit buildings, whose owners get a tax break for keeping rents lower, are different. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says a building where every apartment is a tax credit apartment doesn't have to check incomes every year for the tax credit. A building that also has apartments at market rent does.

What does the housing office check?

With a voucher, the housing office checks your income, your assets, such as savings, and any costs you claim as deductions. It must get proof from someone else, such as your employer or bank, or note why it couldn't. Under the newer rules of HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, if your household's assets are worth $52,787 or less in 2026, the office may accept your signed statement about them instead, and check them with your bank every three years. HUD raises that figure each January, as its table of 2026 amounts shows. HUD requires every housing office to follow the newer rules from January 1, 2027; until then, ask your office which rules and amounts it uses.

The office's letter tells you exactly which papers to send and by when. Common ones are recent pay stubs, benefit letters and bank statements.

What happens to your rent if your income goes up?

With a voucher or in public housing, what you pay rises with your income. The least you pay is your base payment, which HUD calls the total tenant payment. For most households it is 30% of your monthly adjusted income, your income after deductions. The deductions include $500 for each dependent in 2026 (some offices use the older $480 until January 1, 2027) and some child care and medical costs.

With a voucher, your area has a voucher limit, officially the payment standard. It is the most rent and utilities together can cost for a home your size while you still pay only your base payment. It is not what the voucher pays. The housing office pays the lower of two amounts, under HUD's voucher payment rule: the voucher limit minus your base payment, or your rent plus utilities minus your base payment. If your rent plus utilities is above the voucher limit, you pay every dollar over it on top of your base payment.

Example, with round numbers. Your rent plus utilities is $1,800 a month, and the voucher limit is $1,900.

Your income rose 25%, so you pay $180 more a month and the housing office pays $180 less. The landlord still gets the same total. If what you pay ever reaches the full rent plus utilities, the voucher pays nothing. Its contract with your landlord then ends on its own 180 days after the last payment.

Do mid-year raises count?

Usually not until your next yearly check. Under the federal rule:

• If your income drops, you can ask for a new check at any time, and it can lower what you pay.
• If you get a raise at work, it usually isn't counted until your next yearly check, unless your rent was lowered earlier that year. Other income increases of 10% or more get a new check, though the office may skip it in the last three months before your yearly one.
• Report on time. Your housing office's rules say what you must report and by when. If you report on time, the office must give you 30 days' notice before you pay more. If you report late, it charges the increase back to the first of the month after the change.

Public housing works the same way.

How do tax credit buildings handle a raise?

In a tax credit building, a raise doesn't change your rent, because the rent is limited by the federal tax credit law, not set from your income. You can stay, and your apartment still counts as a tax credit apartment as long as your income was under the limit when you moved in.

If your income rises above 140% of the income limit, the most a household can earn and still move in, the owner must change how it fills the building. It must rent the next free apartment of your size or smaller to a household under the limit.

Example, with round numbers. Your household's income limit is $60,000, so 140% is $84,000. At $70,000 you are over the limit, but nothing changes for the building. At $90,000 you are over 140%. You still keep your apartment, but the owner must fill the next free apartment of your size or smaller with a household under the limit.

What if your income gets too high?

• Voucher: the housing office pays less as your base payment rises, then nothing. The voucher's contract with your landlord ends 180 days after its last payment.
• Public housing: if your income stays above the over-income limit for 24 months in a row, the office must either ask you to leave or charge you a higher rent, depending on its rules. That limit is 2.4 times the very low income limit, which works out to about 120% of the area median income, the middle income in your area. The office must tell you in writing and give you a chance to dispute it.
• Tax credit building: you keep your apartment, and the 140% rule above applies to the next apartment that comes free.

What if you miss the deadline?

You could lose your voucher. Under the federal rule, you must give the housing office the information it asks for at each check. The office can end your voucher if you don't. A rent increase from a change you didn't report can also be charged back to the month after the change.

If something stops you from meeting a date, call your housing office or building manager before the date, and keep a copy of everything you send. Your housing office's written rules, your lease and the letter you got decide the details. For a dispute, find free legal help through the Legal Services Corporation.

What should you do next?

To see what you would pay with a voucher at a new income, try our Section 8 calculator. Still waiting for a voucher? Check our waitlists page for the Section 8 and public housing waitlists taking names today. A waitlist is a line you join now for a voucher or apartment later. You can also see which open listings fit your household with our qualify check, and read how limits work in our guide to Section 8 income limits.