For Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Generally see this page.
NEW
–
The possibility of £15 extra money will stop from April
2010:
“...costs have exceeded the planned expenditure for this
policy. To bring the cost into line with what is affordable ... the
Budget announces that from April 2010 there will no longer be scope
for anyone to receive more LHA than they have to pay in
rent.”
paragraph
5.33 of the 2009 Budget report
Local Housing Allowance limits the maximum Housing
Benefit you can receive in the private rented sector.
If you can
rent a place cheaply though, you could pocket up to £15 per week of
the saved Housing Benefit in cash – until April 2010, after that
pocketing extra cash will cease to be possible.
Important Point
Local Housing
Allowance is a new method of establishing the maximum level of
Housing Benefit. It does not replace Housing Benefit, nor does it
create a new form of Housing Benefit
Local Housing Allowance is a new way to work out maximum Housing Benefit entitlement.
It was introduced on Monday 7th April 2008
It applies to private rented sector only; not to council housing, housing associations or registered social landlords.
It is based on number of bedrooms needed (note – in pilot schemes, living rooms needed were calculated too)
It is not based on the actual rent being charged
It is paid to tenant, not directly to landlord (except in special circumstances, see below).
It will be applied to (for private rented sector):
All new Housing Benefit claims from 7th April 2008 onwards
Existing claimants who change address from 7th April 2008 onwards
Claimants who have a break in their claim of one week or more. E.g. through a break in signing on. That makes it important to fight for a backdate in those circumstances.
A change in rent level or lease terms will not cause you to switch to Local Housing Allowance – be sure to appeal if an Housing Benefit office ever attempts that.
Local Housing Allowance does not apply to council housing, housing associations, registered social landlords, homeless hostels.
Local Housing Allowance is a flat rate allowance calculated by the local authority Rent Registration Service using criteria of:
The number of bedrooms needed in claimants circumstances
Room rates for these within Broad Rental Market Area. For Edinburgh, everywhere in Edinburgh is treated as one area. Note that was different in Edinburgh's pilot Local Housing Allowance test scheme, where different rates were set for different districts of Edinburgh.
Number of bedrooms needed in claimants circumstances is calculated as one bedroom for every
Adult couple
Other adult aged 16 or over
Any two children of the same sex up to 16
Any two children regardless of sex under 10
Any other child
Note that there is no extra allowance for tenants with disabilities.
A one bedroom shared (bedsit) rate applies to
single claimants under 25.
But you are exempted from that if you:
Qualify for severe disablement premium; or
Have a non dependent with you; or
Are under 22 and were formerly in care.
You are also subjected to the one bedroom shared (bedsit) rate if you happen to actually be living in a shared/bedsit flat and are single over 25 or are a couple. The same exemptions as above apply.
Local Housing Allowance rates are set monthly by Edinburgh City Council. The City of Edinburgh Council does not publish its monthly LHA rates online as far as I can tell. Glasgow City Council and other councils do, so that may be something for a campaign on? To get current LHA rates you would need to contact City of Edinburgh Council, Revenues and Benefits, Chesser House, 500 Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, EH11 3YR, Tel: 0131 469 5000, E-mail: revenuesbenefits@edinburgh.gov.uk
But for April 2008, the Edinburgh local housing allowance rates were:
Dwelling Category type (£ per week) (£ per
month)
1 Room - Shared B/W.C. & Kitchen £69.23 £300
1
Bedroom property £114.23 £495
2 Bedroom property £144.23 £625
3 Bedroom property £197.89 £858
4 Bedroom property £276.92
£1200
5 Bedroom property £357.69 £1550
They probably won't have changed very much since then, especially since Edinburgh had a pilot before that so should have had time to get the rates worked out.
Delays in applying Local Housing Allowance level
You can get full rent paid for first 13 weeks of
Housing Benefit claim, if the rent could be met when you started
renting, and if you have no Housing Benefit claim in previous 52
weeks.
And there is a 12 month delay in any adjustments to Local
Housing Allowance levels after the death of a family/close relative
who lived in the accommodation.
Reassessment of your Local Housing Allowance
figure is carried out every 12 months.
An immediate reassessment
(an instant Local Housing Allowance change) is carried out for a:
Change of dwelling
Change of number of rooms required (death excepted)
No reassessment is carried out for a rent increase.
Example – John and Mary have
two children, Susan aged 15 and Claire aged 12.
The number of
bedrooms needed is two. So they are assessed as entitled to £115.38
Local Housing Allowance
Susan turns 16 – they number of bedrooms
needed is now three = £132.69 Local Housing Allowance.
That
reassessment is meant to be carried out automatically by Housing
Benefit office. But in practice they may need prompting.
Free Money (until April 2010)
Local Housing Allowance figure need not be actual
maximum rent for Housing Benefit purposes
Claimant will actually
be entitled to the lower of:
Local Housing Allowance figure; or
Contractual rent plus £15.
Example: Bob rents a bedsit for £55 a week. His
Local Housing Allowance figure is the bedsit rate of £69.23.
He
is entitled to the lower of £55+£15 or £69.23 – which means he
is entitled to £69.23 even though he isn’t paying that much to
his landlord.
The difference – up to £15 – is kept by the claimant as extra money, and does not count for deductions from other benefits. Note that in the pilot schemes more than £15 could be kept by the tenant, but that has been cut for the real roll out.
And from April 2010 this will be cut completely and it will no longer be possible to receive any more than the contractual rent.
On the other hand many tenants will find they loose out under the Local Housing Allowance rules and will be topping up their actual rent payments from out of their other benefits.
Safeguards
Local Housing Allowance Housing Benefit is paid to the tenant. The tenant then (supposedly) pays rent on to the landlord.
It can be paid to the landlord when:
The Local Authority considers the tenant is likely to have difficulty managing their affairs (so e.g. mental health, drug/alcohol, debt, gambling issues); or
The tenant has fallen 8 weeks into rent arrears; or
The tenant has a history of falling into arrears.
Refusal to pay direct to landlord is
appealable.
Backdating
If Housing Benefit is backdated before 7th
April 2008 it will be assessed under the old rules rather than Local
Housing Allowance.
If Housing Benefit is backdated to after
7th April 2008, it will be based on Local Housing Allowance monthly
rental figures from the month of the backdate.
Appeals
It is not possible to appeal against the level set in the published Local Housing Allowance monthly rental figures
You can appeal other decisions: e.g. number of bedrooms needed, whether there is a non dependent living there, claimants income, etc.
You have one month to lodge an appeal (12 months for late appeals with reasons for the lateness).
Related Tips
1) Many people who do not receive full Housing Benefit because they are in receipt of a works pension, would get the full Housing Benefit if they could only qualify for the disabled or carers premiums. For the disabled premiums that requires applying for Disability Living Allowance. Note that Housing Benefit Carers Premium is paid even if Carers Allowance is not paid (because of means testing of it) – it is enough simply to show you have an underlying entitlement to Carers Premium, by filling out a Carers Allowance application form.
2) For all Housing Benefit claims, but perhaps especially relevant for Local Housing Allowance issues, the Local Authority can make extra payments to top up Housing Benefit through its Discretionary Housing Payments scheme. In Glasgow the form for that is available online, but not as far as I can see for Edinburgh, so to get the form, contact The City of Edinburgh Council, Revenues and Benefits, Chesser House, 500 Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, EH11 3YR, Tel: 0131 469 5000, E-mail: revenuesbenefits@edinburgh.gov.uk
3) Complaints should go in the first instance to The Director of Finance of The City of Edinbugh Council, Donald McGougan, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG Telephone: 0131 200 2000, email donald.mcgougan@edinburgh.gov.uk. Thereafter to the public services ombudsman. Also, because Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are (uniquely) administered by local councils, intervention by an elected Councillor is often effective in achieving results. These benefits were transferred to the administration of local authorities by Margaret Thatcher in order to fake an election promise to reduce the number of civil servants.
4) Interim Payments – you must be paid within 14days of receipt of your claim if you are a private sector tenant. This is not discretionary, although HB offices sometimes try to treat it that way. You cannot appeal interim payments, but you can argue maladministration, ultimately to the ombudsman. Interim Payments can only be refused if the HB office has reasonable grounds to believe you will not have an entitlement to Housing Benefit.