Local Housing Allowance is help with the cost of rent and takes the place of Housing Benefit for some private tenants. It is a fixed rate based on the locality of your property and the number of bedrooms you need, not how much the rent is.
The locality of your property is decided by the independent rent officer, the number of bedrooms you need depends on the number of people who live with you.
You will be entitled to LHA rather than the original Housing benefit if move or make a new claim for Housing Benefit after April 2008. However you will only be entitled to LHA rather than the orignal Housing Benefit scheme if you meet certain criteria. Please see the FAQ list at the end for confirmation.
The amount of LHA that can be paid to you will depend on the area you live in and the number of bedrooms you are entitled too. Information regarding this is within the FAQ's at the end of the page.
An independent rent officer has split the borough into different areas called broad rental market areas. Within your broad rental market area, the amount of Local Housing Allowance will be the same for each household that needs the same number of bedrooms.
The rent officer reviews the Local Housing Allowance rates and supply the authority with an updated list each month. The amounts are listed below.
As Housing Benefit is based on your income and family circumstances your entitlement may be less than your Local Housing Allowance amount.
May 2012 rates
These figures are valid from 1 May 2012 to 31 May 2012.
Weekly
Outer North
East London |
£ 70.00 |
£ 150.00 |
£ 185.00 |
£ 230.77 |
£ 300.00 |
South West Essex |
£ 66.96 |
£ 126.92 |
£ 155.77 |
£ 184.62 |
£ 253.85 |
Monthly
Outer North
East London |
£ 303.33 |
£ 650.00 |
£ 801.67 |
£1000.00 |
£1300.00 |
South West Essex |
£ 290.16 |
£ 549.99 |
£ 675.00 |
£ 800.02 |
£1100.02 |
Rates for earlier months and years can be found on the pages listed below under the relevant financial year.
Opening a bank or building society account
The easiest way is receive your Local Housing Allowance is to have it paid into a bank or building society account. If you have a bank or building society account you can arrange for your bank or building society to pay your rent direct to your landlord.
If you don't have an account you will want to open one. The main types of bank account are
- a current account at any bank or building society; or
- a basic bank account.
To open a bank or building society account get in touch with the bank or building society you have chosen.
You can visit the branch in person or in some cases you can do it by phone.
You'll need to provide proof of who you are and where you live. The bank or building society will tell you which documents they accept - typical things are:
- a current passport;
- full current driving licence;
- a recent council tax or utility bill;
- a letter from a government department or a local authority confirming a right to State benefits such as Pension Credit, Child Tax Credits, Income Support, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit.
Tell the bank you need an account that money can be paid into directly. If you want an account that you can access from your local Post Office, make this clear.
Tell the bank if you want a basic bank account and ask for it by name. You do not have to credit a minimum amount to this type of account each month and they do not have overdraft facilities so there is no danger of running up debts or charges.
Local Housing Allowance payments
Local Housing Allowance is usually paid to you and not to your landlord.
In some very special cases we may pay it to your landlord, for example, if:
- we think that you are likely to have difficulty managing your own affairs;
- we think that you are unlikely to use your Local Housing Allowance to pay your rent;
- you have built up 8 weeks or more rent arrears;
- you are having deductions made from your Income Support, Jobseekers' Allowance or Guarantee Credit to pay off rent arrears; or
- you qualify for backdated Local Housing Allowance or there has been a delay in processing your claim and a large amount of benefit is to be paid. In these cases we can decide to make the first payment of LHA by cheque payable to your landlord, although it would be sent to you;
- by having payment made direct to your landlord you will be able to secure or retain your tenancy.
"Safeguard" is used where direct payment to the landlord helps claimants who might not otherwise be able to pay their rent themselves. The direct payment is a safeguard to ensure that rent is paid on time and the claimant and their family can continue to live in their home.
The LA can pay Housing Benefit to the landlord for up to 8 weeks while it is gathering information to help it decide who to pay Benefit to.
Please see our safeguard policy on the right for further information regarding direct payments to landlord. A application form for direct payments to landlord is also available for download on the right hand side of this page.
Rent arrears
If you have built up 8 weeks rent arrears or you are having deductions for rent arrears taken from your Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance or Pension Credit we will normally pay your Housing Benefit to your landlord.
The landlord must provide evidence to show the rent that is due, any payments that have been made and the amount of rent outstanding a long with proof that they have tried to recover the outstanding rent from you.
Landlords are encouraged to contact the Benefits department when rent arrears are equal to 5 weeks' rent. This allows the Local Authority time to gather information before the arrears reach the equivalent of 8 weeks' rent. There is a downloadable form available on the right for landlords to complete if your tenant is in arrears.
Once your Local Housing Allowance has been calculated, it applies from the start date of your claim and lasts for one year unless a review is triggered by one of the following:
- a change in your circumstances which affects the category of the dwelling you are entitled to, for example, a child sharing a bedroom reaches 16, someone joins or leaves the household and this changes the number of bedrooms you need;
- a death in the household; or
- a change of address.
Providing there have been no changes in your circumstances, our benefit assessors will automatically recalculate your Local Housing Allowance claim after one year of payment. The new benefit will be based on the Local Housing Allowance rate in force at the time.
If you require any additional information please look at the FAQ's below. If you still require additional information you can contact us either by phone, email, post or in person by using the information listed on the right above. You can also check out the information available on the LHA direct website, the link is listed under See Also above.