Local Housing Allowance is a new way of
working out Housing Benefit for people living in privately rented
accommodation (it does not apply to housing association
tenants). From 7 April 2008 claimants will have their Housing
Benefit calculated using the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) if they
make a new application for Housing Benefit or have a break in their
claim of a week or more, on or after 7th April 2008. This
will also apply to people currently claiming Housing Benefit who
move to a new address on or after 7th April 2008.
Aims of the LHA
Central Government has stated that there are a number of key
aims for introducing LHA:
- Fairness in terms of tenants with similar
circumstances living in the same area will get the same amount of
Housing Benefit.
- Choice in terms of tenants being able to
choose the quality and price of their accommodation with the
possibility of keeping up to £15 per week to spend on other
things.
- Transparency in terms of the scheme making it
easy to find out how much rent could be covered by Housing
Benefit
- Personal responsibility by paying the
allowance to the tenant encourages them to take responsibility for
budgeting and paying their rent themselves.
- Increased work incentives Greater certainty
about what in-work benefit they could receive is expected to help
tenants to bridge the gap between being out of work and taking a
job
- Simplicity by removing the complex rent
restrictions should speed up the decision making process.
Exempt Tenancies
The following types of tenancy will be exempt from the LHA:
Registered Social Landlords (Housing Associations)
Protected cases, such as supported housing provided by certain
local authorities, social landlords, charities and voluntary
organisations
Tenancies that are excluded from current rent restrictions such
as local authority tenancies, Regulated tenancies prior to 15
January 1989 and other regulated tenancies (Rent Act 1977) or Rent
(Agricultural) Act 1976
Home Office bail or probation hostels
Hostel Accommodation
Housing Action Trust Lets
Caravans, houseboats (including mooring charges), & mobile
homes
Cases where the Rent Officer judges that a substantial part of
the rent is attributable to Board and Attendance e.g. hotel
accommodation.
How much will I receive?
Claimants will receive an LHA based on the
* The number of occupiers in their property and
- * The area in which they live
Entitlement to the LHA will be subject to a means test and proof
of a valid tenancy as it is with Housing Benefit now.
Calculating your size criteria
Tenants with similar circumstances are entitled to the same
category of LHA regardless of how much rent they actually
pay. If the rent they pay is less than the allowance they can
keep the excess up to a maximum of £15 per week.
The category that a tenant is entitled to depends on the number
of occupiers within a household. One bedroom shall be allowed
for each of the following categories of occupier (and each occupier
shall come within only the first category which applies to
him):
(a) a couple
(b) a person who is not a child (person 16 years or
more)
(c) two children (up to 16 years) of the same
sex
(d) two children who are less than 10 years old
(e) a child (up to 16)
The allowances are set by the Rent Service each month and are
maximum amounts – the actual amount claimants will be entitled to
will depend on income, savings and circumstances. The claim
is based on the rate for the month the claim is made and will be
reviewed after a year, unless there is a relevant change in
circumstances, such as a change in the number of occupiers or a
move to a new address.
Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMA)
A BRMA is an area made up of two or more distinct areas of
residential accommodation within which a person could reasonably be
expected to live, having regard to facilities and services for the
purposes of health, education, recreation, personal banking and
shopping, and containing residential premises of a variety of
types.
Within the Purbeck District Council area there are two BRMAs,
West Dorset and Bournemouth. People living in areas with
postcodes beginning DT2 will come under the West
Dorset BRMA and people living in areas with postcodes beginning
BH16, BH19, BH20 and BH21 will
come under the Bournemouth BRMA. The rates for each size of
property and the BRMA they apply to will be published on this
website each month, commencing February 2008.
Payments
LHA will normally be paid to the claimant, direct to their bank
or building society account. Local Authorities will have
discretion to make payments to the landlord in exceptional
circumstances (see below)
How does Local Housing Allowance
affect landlords?
The only change for most landlords is that LHA will be paid to
the tenant and the tenant will be responsible for paying their rent
to the landlord.
There is the risk that some tenants may struggle with the
responsibility of paying their rent and therefore, in conjunction
with all other Dorset Authorities, we have developed a “Safeguard
Policy” to identify those cases where LHA should be paid to the
landlord. A copy of this policy is available on this
website. The following are some examples of where we may be
able to pay the landlord but each case will have to be considered
on its merits:
- If we consider that the tenant is vulnerable and is likely to
have difficulty managing their own affairs, and this may include
tenants with learning disabilities, drug or alcohol addictions,
mental health issues or other serious illnesses.
- If we think the tenant is unlikely to use their LHA to pay
their rent and this could be that we know the tenant has
consistently failed to pay their rent in the past.
- When the LHA has been backdated or there has been a delay in
processing a claim and a large amount of benefit is to be
paid. In these cases we can make the first payment of LHA by
cheque payable to the landlord, although it would be sent to the
claimant.
- If the tenant has built up rent arrears of eight weeks or more
and payment direct to the landlord has been implemented we can
continue making payments direct to the landlord after the arrears
have fallen below eight weeks.
- If the tenant is having deductions from their Income Support or
Job Seekers Allowance to pay off rent arrears.
| PURBECK DISTRICT COUNCIL |
|
|
| LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE FOR MARCH
2010 |
| Category Type |
LHA for West Dorset BRMA - Postcodes Starting
DT2 |
LHA for Bournemouth BRMA - Postcodes starting BH16,
BH19, BH20 & BH21 |
| |
Weekly Monthly |
Weekly Monthly |
| A Shared accommodation |
70.71 306.41 |
72.93 316.03 |
| B One bedroom self contained |
111.62 483.69 |
126.58 548.51 |
| C Two bedroom property |
138.08 598.35 |
155.34 673.14 |
| D Three bedroom property |
166.85 723.02 |
195.62 847.69 |
| E Four bedroom property |
207.12 897.52 |
264.66 1146.86 |
| F Five bedroom property |
276.16 1196.69 |
341.18 1478.45 |