Housing Benefit Shared Accommodation Rate Problem

clumpygreen

Hello
Sorry if this has been covered before, but i cant find a straight answer anywhere.

Im a pre 2008 housing benefit claimant (Not on LHA) Im 33 years old and therefore fall into the new changes for under 35's and the Shared Accommodation Rate.

As i am a pre 2008 claimant my housing benefit is calculated by the rent officer using the Local Reference Rate, not the LHA rate.

I believe my benefit will drop to reflect that I can now only claim rent for a room in a shared property, However the LHA Shared Accommodation Rate and the Local Reference Single Room Shared Facilities rates are different!

I pointed this out to my council, and they had no idea what would happen.

As ive never had a break in my claim, ive never moved over to LHA. So will the Local Reference Rate for a single room apply or the LHA rate for shared accommodation rate apply? Ive not read anywhere that I will be converted over to LHA

Hope this all makes sense, I find it abit difficult to put it into clear words

Thankyou
Nick

giraffejoe

Hi,

You won't be converted to LHA. You will get the Local Reference Singel Room Rate. Shocked that your local council didn't know that unless the rules are different for different area's.

clumpygreen

Thank you.
I hope thats the case. Just cant find it mentioned clearly in any literature from the DWP anywhere. They seem to only refer too the LHA rate, which is different.

giraffejoe

I work in HB and it is definately the case in my area. Your local council really should know, and even if the person who answers the phone doesn't know they should at least offer to find out and call you back.

clumpygreen

Yes, they contacted the benefits department and rang me back, still didnt have an answer Said they would look into it further and contact me again.........dosnt fill me with much optimism about the way they run themselves i have to say. I surely cant be the only person asking this question.

giraffejoe

It isn't that common to have a single claimant between the ages of 25-35 who have been on HB continuously since before April 2008 though so they may not have had that many queries which are that specific.

You say they contacted the benefits department. Who exactly did you contact. Did you call HB directly or did you call the DWP?

clumpygreen

I called the contact centre at my local council, they called the team that makes the rulings on your claim for further info, but like i said no one really knew what would happen.