Home
BackYou are here: Home / Living in North Herts / Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit / Local Housing Allowance / Local Housing Allowance Your Questions Answered
Local Housing Allowance (LHA)
Your questions answered
Who is affected by the LHA?
LHA is now used to work out housing benefit for all new claims received on or after 7th April 2008. LHA will also apply to claimants already on housing benefit if they move home after 7th April 2008 and claim benefit at the new address, or they have a break in their claim.
There are exceptions to this, please see 'who will not be affected by LHA' below
What happens if the Landlord increases the rent?
The LHA takes no account of the actual level of rent payable. It is based purely on their room requirement. That is why if a claimant rents somewhere cheaper than the LHA rate they can keep the difference. A rent increase would not normally be a change that would require a new LHA to be used.
How is the LHA paid?
LHA is payable to the claimant.
Claimants no longer have the choice of direct payments to the landlord. Payments will be made according to the existing payment cycle if the claim is currently in payment of benefit, or four weekly in arrears if they are a new claimant.
The tenant will have to arrange to pay their landlord. The Council will not talk to the landlord about a claim unless the claimant has given written permission to do so.
However if a tenant is in arrears with their rent by 8 weeks or more the landlord has the right to ask for direct payments and in those circumstances the Council would confirm to the landlord the amount of benefit they are entitled to.
Payments will be made by BACS (direct transfer to their bank account)
What if I want the LHA to be paid to my Landlord?
If a claimant is unable to take the responsibility for the payment of rent then the Council can make the payments direct to their landlord.
However this will only happen if there is a compelling reason to do so, such as serious illness, which means that the claimant cannot cope with handling their financial affairs. If the claimant is worried about taking this responsibility then they should talk to the Council about their concerns and explain the situation.
Who will NOT be affected by LHA
The new rules will not apply to:
- Local Authority tenants
- Tenants of registered social landlords (Housing Associations)
- Tenants who have a registered or 'fair' rent
- Tenancies which commenced before January 1989
- Protected cases such as supported housing provided by social landlords, charities or voluntary organisations
- Tenancies in caravans, houseboats or hostels
