Local Housing Allowance applies to most people in privately rented accommodation who make a new claim for Housing Benefit on or after 7th April If you are already receiving Housing Benefit on this date these new rules will not apply to you. 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 could be entitled to before you move into a property. You can find out which BRMA applies to you. These are weekly figures, and are dependant on the number of bedrooms your family needs, rather than the number of bedrooms you actually have.
One room is allowed as a bedroom for each of the following occupiers, up to a maximum of 4, with each occupier coming only within the first category which applies to him or her:.
Local Housing Allowance will be paid to the tenant into a bank account. If you do not have a bank account you will need to a open a new account. Find out about basic bank accounts. 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 an application form for Direct Payments of Housing Benefit to your Landlord. You will need to provide supporting evidence. By single people we mean someone who is not living:. The shared accommodation rate is based on the level of local rents for properties that are not self contained. This usually means that there is a shared.
