Local Housing allowance

FieryBlondeScot

LHA
he is on a city and guilds apprenticeship so goes to college one day a week, work 4 days. he does not get EMA as my income for last year was too high

Oldernotwiser

You should be eligible for LHA for a 2 bed and your son should be contributing to the household.

lil_me

FieryBlondeScot - Contact your local housing office, that sounds way too complicated for someone to comment on here as it seems like something is not quite right. It might be those deductions are made because of your son, it could be that the LHA is lower than the rent in your area (here the 2 bed allowance you are entitled to would only be just over £80 per week). If your son is not in full time education I can't understand why you're still getting CTC unless he's an unpaid apprentice. I thought EMA like CTC could be changed when earnings reduce? It must be a shock for you going from over £30k a year to JSA (£30k ish being cut off point for getting no EMA)

FieryBlondeScot

hi i will ring the housing again to check it all out, thanks for your help :beer:

FieryBlondeScot

for god sake! they had not factored in the child benefit which meant i was losing a premium so it appear i will get full housing benefit and council tax benefit, in fact council tax owes ME !! however will not trust it until the money is actually in my bank! i got so stung with the tax credits overpayment thing years back and it jut goes to show you that you do have to be on their case to ensure no further overpayments! what a pain:mad:

Chrysalis

Chrysalis wrote: »

I dont use a LA, my rent is higher than the so called average rent claim by LHA. My rent is deemed as fair on housing benefit but would be excessive on LHA.

If other areas are the same which they starting to sound like they are then LHA is a lower payout than HB.

The difference I see between housing benefit and LHA is this.

When they evaluate fair rent on housing benefit they look at the average claim amount for equal size properties in the 'immediate area' not the entire county. So market rents are disregarded they just make sure the claim is not deviating too much from other claimants.

LHA on the other hand seems to be an average figure drawn up from they deem as market rents and its from a much larger area a city or even a county. I have also recently heard they include subsidised properties (heard this year ago as well), by subsidised I mean properties where part of rent is paid by local authority making it cheaper than typical private rentals.

I wonder if I am going to be pushed onto LHA rates, I had a postal review letter 2 weeks ago, assumng I dont get suspended as I will be posting my 2nd month bank statement after deadline I will see if they reeavluate what I get.