Your Rent (including Local Housing Allowance)
Your Rent
The amount of Housing Benefit you get is based on your weekly rent. If you are renting your home from a private landlord, the Rent Service is responsible for setting the maximum level of rent on which we can pay your Housing Benefit. From April 2008, most private tenants will have their maximum rent set using the new Local Housing Allowance rates.
Housing Benefit cannot help pay towards your mortgage or any extra services which may be included in your rent, for instance:
- Fuel for heating, lighting, cooking or hot water
- Meals
- Use of a laundry
- Water charges
- Care
If you pay for services like these with your rent, and you are not eligible for LHA, we take off the cost of them before we work out your Housing Benefit. If you don't know the amount your landlord includes for these services, we take off standard or estimated amounts. The full amount we have taken off for service charges is shown on your letter.
If your landlord includes an amount for Council Tax in your rent this is taken into account when we work out your Housing Benefit.
If the Rent Service decides the rent charged by your landlord is too high, they will set a lower figure which the Council will normally use to work out your Housing Benefit. The difference can not normally be covered by Benefit, but in certain cases of exceptional hardship you may be able to apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment.
If your rent is considered to be too high, the amount we have taken off will be shown on your letter. The part of the rent covered by Housing Benefit is called your Maximum Eligible Rent.
Local Housing Allowance
What is Local Housing Allowance (LHA)?
Local Housing Allowance will be introduced from 7th April 2008. LHA will affect most new private tenant claims for housing benefit. If you are an existing private tenant claimant it may affect you if you make a new claim, change your address or reclaim benefit after a break in your claim of one week or more. (Some types of private tenancies are excluded from LHA rules e.g. if your tenancy started before 1989, you are a housing association tenant or you live in a caravan, mobile home or house boat).
LHA is an amount used as your maximum rent in the calculation of your housing benefit award. It is based on the number of bedrooms you are allowed for the size of your family and the area in which you live and not how much actual rent you are charged. Some people may choose to live in a property that has a different number of bedrooms than the LHA scheme considers they need.
- The national Rent Service will set the LHA rates and Dartford's LHA Rates are published on this website.
All new customers will be able to work out what amount will be used as a rent amount in their housing benefit calculation if they are in a LHA tenancy.
The LHA Size Criteria
The size of your household will decide the LHA figure used. The size criteria is based on bedrooms and you are allowed one bedroom for:
- every adult couple (married or unmarried)
- any other adult aged 16 or over
- any two children under age 10
- any two children of the same sex aged under 16
- any other child
Th only exceptions to these rules are:
- single claimants under 25 – will always receive the shared room rate regardless of the type of property occupied.
- single claimants over 25 or childless couples living in shared accommodation – will only receive the shared room rate.
How Will Benefit Be Paid?
In most cases your benefit will be paid into your bank account and you will be responsible for making your own payments of rent to your landlord. In certain limited circumstances, benefit can be paid directly to your landlord.
- We will need you to complete a Request for Direct Payment to Landlord form
More Information
- "Background to Local Housing Allowance" explains why the Government have made these changes to Housing Benefits.
- You can also find out more about the Local Housing Allowance at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/lha.asp
- Opening a Bank Account gives information about how to open a bank account.
Dartford's LHA Rates
To work out which of the rates applies in your benefit calculation, you will need to work out how many bedrooms you need for your household – see The LHA size criteria.
| Categories | Weekly Rent Value from 7th April 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st May 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st June 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st July 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Aug 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Sept 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shared room rate |
66.81 |
66.81 |
67.73 |
69.23 |
69.23 |
69.23 |
1 bedroom |
115.38 |
115.38 |
115.38 |
115.38 |
115.38 |
121.15 |
2 bedrooms |
144.23 |
144.23 |
147.70 |
150.00 |
150.00 |
150.00 |
3 bedrooms |
161.54 |
161.54 |
161.54 |
161.54 |
161.54 |
161.54 |
4 bedrooms |
210.00 |
210.00 |
215.77 |
219.23 |
219.23 |
219.23 |
5 bedrooms |
229.62 |
229.62 |
230.77 |
230.77 |
276.92 |
345.58 |
| Categories | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Oct 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Nov 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Dec 2008 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Jan 2009 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Feb 2009 | Weekly Rent Value from 1st Mar 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shared room rate |
69.23 |
69.62 |
70.00 |
|||
1 bedroom |
121.15 |
121.15 |
121.15 |
|||
2 bedrooms |
150.00 |
150.00 |
150.00 |
|||
3 bedrooms |
161.54 |
167.31 |
167.31 |
|||
4 bedrooms |
219.23 |
225.00 |
225.00 |
|||
5 bedrooms |
345.58 |
334.04 |
346.15 |
If your household needs a larger than 5 bedroom property please contact us and we can give further details.
If we need to backdate your claim then we have to use the LHA rate for the month in which the claim is actually starting. If we need to backdate your claim to before 7th April 2008 then LHA will not apply and the claim will need to be referred to the Rent Officer who will decide what rent amount we can use.
Changes to Your Household
If you have a change to your household that means you need more or less bedrooms you need to tell us straight away. It will affect the amount of Housing Benefit that you receive.
Rent Increases
Once your claim is in payment your LHA rate will only be updated every twelve months unless you have a change in your household that means you need more or less bedrooms. The LHA rate will be changed to the rate for the household size that is applicable for that month. If your landlord increases your rent, we will not change your LHA rate and recalculate your Housing Benefit until your claim anniversary.
