LHA and bills - what to do when bills included?

zaralondon

Hey all - Ill try to be brief.

If the rent is inclusive of bills, how much will the council deduct form your LHA payment per week? I am kind of relying on that extra 15 a week top pay for bills and general expenses. The extra 15 pounds would be helpful but if bills are taken from the LHA allowance, I am worried about how much i will be left with.

Has anyone got any experience with this? (I am thinking of things which would be deemed as not part of 'eligible rent' e.g. heating? water? elec/gas?).

GlasweJen

They deduct anything that isn't actually rent from their calculations; electricity, gas, council tax, food and services are all deducted before the award is made. If the expenses are outlined on the tenancy agreement they usually go with that but otherwise there is a formula they use to calculate how much each of the deductions should be and then they take it away from the total rent and allocate LHA appropriately.

This is how they do it in Edinburgh anyway, not sure how it works outside of Scotland.

fluffymovie

Hi

In the UK, LHA is inclusive of all bills etc.

Under the old rules, if you rented a room for example, we would deduct an amount set by the old Rent Service each week. E.g, Room for £90 pw, services of £7.50 reduction, max HB £82.50

Under LHA, no deductions are made for services so if your rent is £100 pw and £20.00 of this is for services, you still get the £100.00 if you meet the conditions.

The thinking behind this is that the LHA shared room rate takes into account an amount for services when the rate is set. In my LA, we have loads of people getting £84.92 pw which is the shared room rate but their neighbour who has been on HB for a long time, gets a lot less so LHA does seem to be more generous in that way

GlasweJen

thats interesting fluffy, when i lived in edinburgh during the pilot of LHA i had deductions for electricity and gas taken off my allowance before the award was made.

dmg24

fluffymovie wrote: »

Hi

In the UK, LHA is inclusive of all bills etc.

Under the old rules, if you rented a room for example, we would deduct an amount set by the old Rent Service each week. E.g, Room for £90 pw, services of £7.50 reduction, max HB £82.50

Under LHA, no deductions are made for services so if your rent is £100 pw and £20.00 of this is for services, you still get the £100.00 if you meet the conditions.

The thinking behind this is that the LHA shared room rate takes into account an amount for services when the rate is set. In my LA, we have loads of people getting £84.92 pw which is the shared room rate but their neighbour who has been on HB for a long time, gets a lot less so LHA does seem to be more generous in that way

It is not that straightforward - bills are included if they are a condition of the tenancy. If they are optional, they may not be included.

OP, you should also remember that the £15 excess will be withdrawn in April 2010.

zaralondon

dmg24 wrote: »

It is not that straightforward - bills are included if they are a condition of the tenancy. If they are optional, they may not be included.

OP, you should also remember that the £15 excess will be withdrawn in April 2010.

Thanks everyone - I heard that the withdrawal was being scrapped...?

fluffymovie

Hi
The Government stated that the excess would be withdrawn in April 2010 in the Budget. However, we have read comments in our office that backbench MP's might stage a revolt against this and so it might not happen.
I'm not at work today but will check the regs on LHA and guidance notes that I received when I attended LHA seminars by DWP in 2007/08