LHA rise

breadsoup

Hello,
In my payment calculation for UC for the period March 22nd to April 21st my housing part of the payment hasn't gone up yet. I thought it was going up in April and so I would see the change this month? Do I need to wait until next month which is completely after April 1st?
Thank you

HillStreetBlues

It will be next month, any uplift only comes into effect for a full AP, so will be 22/4-21/5 paid on the 28/5

poppy12345

HillStreetBlues said:

It will be next month, any uplift only comes into effect for a full AP, so will be 22/4-21/5 paid on the 28/5

Hmm other elements will not increase this month but just looked at my daughter's statement for this month and her housing element has increased. This is the first year she's claimed housing element so didn't realise that would increase this month but it clearly has. 

OP are you entitled to more housing element? Whether you are will depend on your circumstances. Are you privately renting or from social housing? 

breadsoup

poppy12345 said:

HillStreetBlues said:

It will be next month, any uplift only comes into effect for a full AP, so will be 22/4-21/5 paid on the 28/5

Hmm other elements will not increase this month but just looked at my daughter's statement for this month and her housing element has increased. This is the first year she's claimed housing element so didn't realise that would increase this month but it clearly has. 

OP are you entitled to more housing element? Whether you are will depend on your circumstances. Are you privately renting or from social housing? 

Hi I think I am entitled to more housing I privately rent. Also in the breakdown it says the amount I get is the maximum allowed by the LHA and that amount has not gone up. 

poppy12345

How many bedrooms you're entitled to will depend on your circumstances. You can check the LHA rates for your area here. https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/ It will be a weekly rate, to work out the monthly rate times that by 52 and divide by 12. 

If you're affected by the benefit cap then this will affect the amount you're entitled to. 

Newcad

There is a difference in when a change in the LHA rate applies from and when an actual rent rise applies from.

So if you are in Social Housing then when your rent went up on 1st April that was a change of circumstances and applied to the start of the AP when it happened. ie the AP that started before the 1st April,  so you see the increase in your UC payment in April.

HOWEVER the change to LHA is not a change of circumstances because your rent hasn't changed* - it is a benefits rate change for those in Privately Rented Housing - and so it only applies from the start of your next AP after the rate changed on 8th April, so you wont see it until your UC payment in May/June. ie at the same time that all your other UC rates increase.

*OK if your Private Landlord had also put your rent up then it would apply back to the start of the AP in which it went up, but the change to LHA rate still doesn't apply until the AP after the rate change, so unless your rent is lower than LHA you still wouldn't see any change in UC-HE for a month.

poppy12345

Thanks Newcad, that makes sense. For clarity myself and daughter live in social housing. 

HillStreetBlues

Newcad said:

HOWEVER the change to LHA is not a change of circumstances because your rent hasn't changed* - it is a benefits rate change for those in Privately Rented Housing - and so it only applies from the start of your next AP after the rate changed on 8th April, so you wont see it until your UC payment in May/June. ie at the same time that all your other UC rates increase.

*OK if your Private Landlord had also put your rent up then it would apply back to the start of the AP in which it went up, but the change to LHA rate still doesn't apply until the AP after the rate change, so unless your rent is lower than LHA you still wouldn't see any change in UC-HE for a month.

It's not classed as an uplift that came into affect on the 8th, as it's a rate change it applies from the 1st.