Local Housing Allowance
If you are renting from a private landlord and wish to make a claim for Housing Benefit, this will be calculated using the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) which applies to your personal circumstances.
LHA refers to different categories of allowance which relate to different sizes of property, but the category depends on the number of occupiers within the household and not the actual size of the property. Tenants with similar household circumstances are entitled to the same category of LHA regardless of how much rent they actually pay, but you cannot receive more than your rent and the maximum household 'need' is now capped at 4 bedrooms.
How to calculate the LHA rate
There are three stages to working out which LHA applies to you:
- How may rooms do you need? You can work out the bedroom entitlement that applies to you online at DirectGov.
- Which area of Brent is the property in? Find this information from Brent's property search.
- Look up the current LA allowance rate (.pdf, 457Kb) to find the bedroom rate you need, in the area the property is in.
April 2011 changes that affect existing benefit customers
Rules relating to housing benefits changed from April 2011. The main changes to LHA during 2011/12 are:
- tenants who receive £15 per week excess (above their rent) in the calculation of their LHA, will no longer receive this after their claim is reviewed
- the 4 bedroom rate will be the maximum LHA rate available
- the calculation of Local Housing Allowance will be based towards the lower end of the market rather than the 'average' level, which will probably mean that LHA levels will be less in 2011/12 than they were in 2010/11
- existing LHA claims will be protected from these changes for 9 months from their review date so long as other circumstances remain the same (except the £15 excess which will cease on the review date of the claim)
- from January 2012 most single people under 35 will have their maximum LHA based on the shared accommodation rate - this is currently £80.81 in North Brent and £87.50 in South Brent
- people who need an overnight carer may be able to get an extra room.