How to change from old HB to LHA,,,, help please

rodeo

Hi myself and my partner are on the old HB payment and it goes nowhere near covering our monthly rent, I have looked at the LHA site and would receive a little more if we were receiving that, now I have asked my local HB officers and am told the only way we can change to LHA is to end our claim loose a weeks benefit and reclaim ,this we cannot afford to do ,so I wondered if anyone knew of any other way this can be done.The only reason we are not on LHA is because we have never made a new claim since it came into force. Thanks,

karenx

HB etc isnt there to cover your monthly rent anyway, its to help out those on low income.
There is no other way around it, you cant just switch from one to the other. You need to cancel your claim with HB and then claim LHA

KimYeovil

"Nowhere near" does not compute with "this we cannot afford".

silvercar

You need to check carefully before you go ahead. The government has announced cut backs on LHA. It is soon going to reduce by roughly 10% as they are reducing the payout from the average rent in the area to the 30th percentile. Then after a year it reduces by 10%.

You may find you are better off sticking to the old system.

maxmycardagain

If its a priority then cancel your claim on a friday and reclaim on the next monday, claims are dated from when the forms are recieved so you shouldnt lose any HB

fluffymovie

Lha only applies for new claims and those who want to move into it have to gave a break of at least a week.

If you move you don't get a weeks gap but it is pretty much a choice between lose a weeks hb and make this up with the increase you'll get on lha or stay on the old scheme