Local Housing Allowance (LHA)

People who rent from private landlords and who qualify for Housing Benefit to help them pay their rent will receive a Local Housing Allowance award.

The main aims of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) scheme are to:

• ensure fairness - tenants with the same circumstances living in the same area will receive the same award
• give tenants more choice regarding the quality and price of accommodation they rent
• make the benefits scheme easier for claimants and landlords to understand and reduce the time it takes local authorities to decide claims
• encourage Housing Benefit claimants to have increased personal and financial responsibility

If you are a Council tenant, view our Housing and Council Tax Benefit page for more information.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Rates

LHA rates are determined monthly by the Valuation Office Agency. LHA rates from 1st April 2012 to 31st March 2013 are frozen at the April 2012 rates - view current rates.

Rates for other areas and also for previous periods can be found on the Valuation Office Agency website.

Tenants are entitled to one bedroom for:

• every adult couple (couples aged 16 or over that are married, in a civil partnership, or living together)
• any other adult (an adult is a person aged 16 or over)
• any two children of the same sex under the age of 16
• any two children, regardless of their sex, under the age of 10
• any other child (a child is a person under the age of 16)
• From 1st April 2011 - an additional bedroom for a non-resident carer when the claimant or their partner is a person who requires over night care, however this only applies if that bedroom is used by a carer for overnight stays as part of caring for the claimant or their partner.
  

Conditions apply to the number of bedrooms that the following categories of tenants are entitled to:

• tenants that are under 35 and live alone
• tenants that are under 35 and are severely disabled
• tenants under 22 who are care leavers
• tenants that rent shared accommodation, not self-contained properties (Self-contained means that a tenant has their own room and their own bathroom and toilet and kitchen or cooking facilities).

Vulnerable Claimants Policy

Please read the policy document attached below for information on the circumstances in which LHA can be paid directly to landlords.

Local Housing Allowance- Direct Payments and Vulnerable Claimants Policy (pdf) (135Kb)

If you wish to apply to have payments made direct to a landlord, open one of the following links:

• if you are an advisor applying on behalf of a claimant to have LHA paid direct to their landlord (pdf) (44Kb)
• if you are a claimant applying to have LHA paid direct to your landlord (pdf) (59Kb)
• if you are a landlord applying to have your tenant's LHA paid direct to you (pdf) (46Kb)