Local Housing Allowance-LHA

Background

Local Housing Allowance is a new scheme for people in privately rented accommodation who make a new claim for Housing Benefit on or after 7th April 2008. If you are already receiving Housing Benefit on this date these new rules will not apply to you. However. if you move address or stop claiming Housing Benefit for at least one week, we will work out your new claim under the LHA rules.

LHA replaces the old rent referral scheme with a system of Local Housing Allowances based on the area in which the tenant lives and the number of people in the household.

This new scheme will remove the need for the Rent Service to value each individual property and will mean that you can find out how much LHA you will be entitled to before you move into a property without the need to complete a Pre Tenancy Determination form.

Every property in the country will be included in a specific Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA).You can find out which BRMA applies to you.

Local Housing Allowance will be paid to the tenant by cheque or into a bank account. If you do not have a bank account you will need to a open a new account. details about basic bank accounts can be found on the Financial Services Authority website.

There are a few occasions where LHA can be paid to a landlord. these include:

• ·If you are eight or more weeks behind with your rent
• ·If we think that you will have difficulty paying your rent
• ·If we think that you will not pay your rent

We can also consider paying your landlord if you think that you will have difficulty with these arrangements. You will need to contact us to discuss this, or you can download the Application for Direct Payments of Housing Benefit to your Landlord form  (131.35 KB) and provide supporting evidence

Further details about Local Housing Allowance can be found on the Benefit Leaflets website.

Or you can visit the DWP website.

Alternatively you can get further information from any of our contact centres in Droitwich, Evesham and Pershore or contact us.