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Local Housing Allowance

What is it?

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) replaces the Rent Allowance Scheme from 7th April 2008.

Local Housing Allowance is the Government's new way of working out Housing Benefit for people who rent from a private landlord. The amount you get will be based on the number of bedrooms your household needs, not how much rent you pay.

Who will be affected?

LHA will affect:

people who claim help with rent after 7th April 2008
existing benefit claimants who move house to a privately rented property
existing claimants who have a break of one week or more in their benefit entitlement

LHA will not affect:

A1 Housing tenants
tenants of registered social landlords
tenants of houseboats & caravans
tenants who have substantial board & lodge included in their rent
tenancies prior to January 1989
supported housing provided by social landlords, charities and voluntary organisations

How will Local Housing Allowance be worked out?

This will be based on the number of bedrooms your household needs, not necessarily the number of bedrooms you have.

The Government allows a set number of bedrooms as follows:

one bedroom allowed each for:
every adult couple (married or unmarried)
any other adult over 16yrs (eg a single adult)
any two children of the same sex, under the age of 16yrs
any two children of either sex,under 10 yrs
any other child

Use our Bedroom Entitlement Calculator to work out how many bedrooms would be allowed for your household to work out your LHA rate.

example:- a couple who live in a three-bedroomed house with two children of the opposite sex, but both children under the age of 10yrs, would be assessed as needing two bedrooms and would therefore have their future LHA based on the rate for a two-bedroomed house.

In the above example, when the elder child reaches 10yrs the LHA rate would increase to the three-bedroomed rate. This is because a bedroom would now be allowed for each child.

What's the next step?

Once the number of bedrooms you need is worked out, the next step is to look up the Local Housing Allowance rate for the area that you live. The Rent Service has reviewed all areas of the U.K, containing privately rented accommodation and has set these areas depending on their access to services, transport, schools etc. These will be known as Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMA)

Bassetlaw will fall into three Broad market Rental Areas, they are:

Mansfield, Worksop and Retford (North Notts)
Doncaster
Newark & Grantham

Each area will have monthly LHA rates set by the Rent Service and these will be published here on these pages so that you can check how much your Benefit will be based on. They will also be published on the Rent Service's website.

Local Housing Allowance updated monthly- January 2009
Category	Description	North Notts	Doncaster	Newark & Grantham
A	Shared or under 25 years	£60.00	£53.00	£60.00
B	1 bedroomed	£77.89	£84.69	£83.08
C	2 bedroomed	£98.08	£94.85	£109.62
D	3 bedroomed	£109.62	£109.62	£121.15
E	4 bedroomed	£152.31	£137.31	£173.08
F	5 bedroomed	£207.69	£178.85	£211.15

These rates will be updated each month.

What happens when I apply for Housing Benefit?

Each month the Rent Service will publish figures for each category (no. of bedrooms) and rental area. The amount used in your benefit calculation will be fixed for a period of 12 months, unless there is a change in circumstance which would affect the number of bedrooms you need or the area you live in. It would still be based on the fixed LHA rate even if your rent increases during this twelve month period.

To work out a claim, the Council still needs to collect the same information and evidence as before for rent, capital and income. This has not changed. The LHA rate is used in the calculation of entitlement in the same way as before, so your income level could affect the amount you are entitled to.

If the rent you have to pay weekly is lower than the LHA rate, you could be entitled to keep the difference up to a weekly maximum of £15. There will be no right of appeal against the LHA rates provided by the Rent Service but a tenant would still be able to appeal to the Council, as usual, about the level of benefit awarded.

How will you pay my allowance?

Under the old rent allowance rules we could pay Housing Benefit either to the claimant or direct to the landlord or someone else. Under the new rules we will pay the LHA direct to the claimant who will be responsible for paying the rent themselves.

However there may be occasions where it would be more appropriate to to make the LHA payments direct to the landlord. This will be looked at on an individual basis by the Council and applies to vulnerable tenants and those who think they may have difficulties paying the rent themselves.

Please click on the link below to view the Council's vulnerability policy.

Vulnerability Policy

If you would like to be considered for direct payments to your landlord please contact us on 01777 713855 or download and print a form from the forms to download page

Will I need a bank account?

It would be better if we could pay your LHA directly into a bank account, not by cheque. Receiving your LHA this way means you can:

get your money quicker, with funds clearing straight away
get your money at cash machines, your bank branch, the post office and at some supermarkets who offer 'cashback' facilities
set up a standing order from your account to pay your rent to the landlord

In addition

your money is safer, as cheques can go missing or be stolen
no more queuing up to cash a cheque or to pay it in to your bank. Sooner or later,cheques will be phased out
its cheaper for the Council to pay direct to a bank account

The Council will ask you for your bank account number and sort code. All details are kept strictly confidential and secure and won't be used for any other purpose.