Local Housing Allowance
On 7 April 2008 a new way of calculating Housing Benefit for people on low incomes who rent their homes from a private landlord was introduced. The new scheme is called Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and is no longer based on the property that you are renting.
It is based on:
- who lives with you
- the area where the property you are renting is located (broad rental market area)
- how much money you have coming in
- what savings you have
As a tenant you will not be affected if you:
- are already receiving Housing Benefit
- rent from a housing association or a charitable or voluntary organisation
- rent from the local authority (council tenant)
- have a tenancy which started before 1989
- live in a caravan, houseboat, mobile home or hostel
- live in accommodation where a substantial part of the rent is for board and lodge (eg bed and breakfast accommodation)
You will be affected if you live in private accommodation and you:
- make a new claim for Housing Benefit which starts on or after 7 April 2008
- currently receive Housing Benefit but change address (to other private accommodation on or after 7 April 2008)
- currently receive Housing Benefit but have a break in entitlement of at least one week
What’s the difference between the existing Housing Benefit scheme and Local Housing Allowance?
The existing Housing Benefit scheme is based on the rent that you actually pay, or what the rent officer decides is a fair rent for the property you are living in.
Under the new Local Housing Allowance scheme:
- you can find out the maximum Local Housing Allowance you could be entitled to before you rent a property
- Local Housing Allowance is a simpler system, there is no longer a need for complex rent restrictions and individual referrals to the Rent Service, which will help speed up the administration of Housing Benefit payments
- Local Housing Allowance payments will normally be paid direct to the tenant, the easiest way for you to receive your Local Housing Allowance is straight into a bank account. Under the Local Housing Allowance scheme there is no longer the option for claimants to request payments direct to their landlord, except in certain circumstances
The circumstances are:
- where the claimant is considered vulnerable and it is in the best interests of the tenant to pay Housing Benefit direct to the landlord. (Plymouth City Council has developed a safeguard policy for assessing vulnerability claims which is available to download from the documents table below)
- where the claimant is eight weeks or more in arrears with their rent, unless we consider it in the tenant's best interest not to pay the landlord direct
How will Local Housing Allowance work?
You can work out the maximum amount of Local Housing Allowance you could receive by calculating how many bedrooms you are entitled to and checking the rates guide page for that number of bedrooms for the month you are making your claim for Housing Benefit.
You are allowed one bedroom for:
- every adult couple
- every adult aged 16 or over
- any two children of the same sex under the age of 16
- any two children under the age of 10
- any other child
There is also a shared room rate which applies to most tenants aged under 25 and certain tenants over 25 that do not have exclusive use of the accommodation they rent.
Please note that from 1 April 2011 LHA levels will be capped at the four bedroom rate for all new claims. This means that for all new claims where families have an entitlement of more than four bedrooms the LHA rate will be capped at a maximum of the four bedroom rate. For existing LHA claims where there is an entitlement to more than the four bedroom rate, these cases will be reviewed on the first anniversary of their claim. For more information about the changes to LHA from April 2011 visit the changes to local housing allowance page.
We will publish the actual Local Housing Allowance rates for Plymouth every month on this website and also in our offices and other outside agencies such as at the Citizens' Advice Bureau and Job Centres.
For more information on Local Housing Allowance please visit our frequently asked questions page.
Information for tenants - Local Housing Allowance tenants leaflet. [1.24MB] Information for landlords and agents - Local Housing Allowance landlords leaflet. [196KB] Vulnerability information for claimants - Local Housing Allowance vulnerability leaflet. [1.73MB] Safeguard policy - vulnerable tenants safeguard policy. [40KB] Application for landlord direct payments - application form. [788KB] Plymouth broad rental market area - map of broad rental market area. [680KB] Information on bank accounts - Local Housing Allowance bank account guide. [680KB] Summary of Local Housing Allowance - an equality impact assessment summary relating to Local Housing Allowance. [59.9KB]