Local Housing allowance

emsywoo123

I ahve found out that my LHA allowance is actually £95 per month greater than my current HB, which does indeed cover all of my rent. I repsume that my benfit will not change though?

Barcode

The LHA here would, if I received it, cover £50 more of my rent.

But the council say that existing HB claimants cannot be transferred to LHA unless (a) there is a break in their existing claim or (b) they move house. So, it seems that LHA claimants will be better off than me, renting a similar place, whilst I have to make up more of a shortfall. Excuse me for feeling annoyed about this.

lil_me

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1155023

Just incase anyone concerned hasn't see this, might be great for those who will be better off on LHA rates but not for those who's HB was higher

lulu221

Here is the calculator that is used for the LHA
https://lha-direct.therentservice.gov.uk/secure/LHARatesearch

lil_me

Just been looking through this thread and the comments made as I was looking at the Rent Service website, seems the local reference rents have dropped quite a lot in some areas. http://www.therentservice.gov.uk/corporate-publications/local-reference-rents/local-reference-rents-30June2008.asp#C

For example £7 per week in our area on average, which is quite a drop as for a family on benefits that would be an additional £30 a month more towards rent if it wasn't covered by HB (I don't think that would cover most peoples rent in the area) The rents now done on a larger area basis like LHA instead of the smaller local areas used before so those in a more wealthy area with higher rents will probably suffer the most.

Chrysalis

lil_me after reading your post I checked out the rates for my area, the council list the last 4 changes.

shared, 1bed and 2bed all went up but by tiny amounts under £1.
3,4,5,6 bed went up by significant amounts over £10.
7,8 bed stayed exacly the same, 7bed went up then down again.

Of course these are just last 4 months reviewed monthly, all 4 figures seem to be lower than when I last checked half a year ago. The 1 bed rate is lower than what I currently have deemed as fair rent on housing benefit and does indeed seem low, I remember when I first checked them they seemed generous.

This does appear to be as a result of local housing allowance covering large areas, including run down inner city areas dragging them down, I also heard they include subsidised rent properties.

lil_me

HB now goes by these larger areas aswell as you will see from the link above, those are HB rates in the 'broader' areas. This is most likely why the HB in the area I am in has gone down, because there was a seperate band for inner town/weathly areas and outskirts/less wealthy areas previously. Now they're trying to cover an area where rentals can be anything from £50 a week to £250 a week (plus) for a 2 bedroom property with one rate. Madness. Maybe there is another motive of course, that they are trying to push those on lower incomes to the 'cheaper' parts of town.

Chrysalis

I had a look on rightmove, the LHA for my area is currently £360 a month.

Of 8 1 bed properties, the cheapest was £375 and the rest were in £. 390 390 390 415 435 435 450, the £375 was in the middle of a very rough estate. There was studio's cheaper but in my opinion they dont count as 1 bed flats. There was a few bedsits more than what they give for 1 bed flats very shocking.

I agree with your diagnosis they are clearly trying to push people into the worst areas.

Oldernotwiser

Perhaps it's only fair that if people are having their rent paid for them they should live in cheaper areas? Just a thought.

lil_me

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Perhaps it's only fair that if people are having their rent paid for them they should live in cheaper areas? Just a thought.

What as in the old fashioned sh*t goes to sh*t while the rich get richer? Forcing those who are disabled to move out of reach of family support ( a problem a friend is currently having), those who work but get top up to help to move and loose their jobs. Oh yes, bright idea that one.

To be honest, looking at Right Move you wouldn't even cover the rent in a run down property in our area. I can only assume they are using HA housing in the calculations aswell. We don't live in a fabulous area but if on LHA/HB the amount we'd be entitled to wouldn't even cover half of our rent now. Looking the cheapest rents are well on the outskirts, in the middle of nowhere, which then would leave those out of employment with issues such as transport when seeking employment (one of those properties on has a bus service near it 4 times a day, twice in and twice out of the area)