Housing and Council Tax Benefits
Private Tenants
This section does not apply if you pay your rent to a Housing Association.
Local Housing Allowance is being introduced from 7 April 2008. This scheme is a new way of working out new claims for Housing Benefit for tenants renting accommodation from a private landlord and also affects tenants already getting Housing Benefit who move into rented accommodation from a private landlord.
With Local Housing Allowance, your benefit is not usually based on the property you live in. It is usually based on:
- who lives with you
- which area you live in
- how much money you have coming in
- what savings you have
In some cases the amount of benefit you are entitled to will be affected by other things. These can include:
- how much your rent is
- whether anyone living with you is expected to contribute to your rent
Local Housing Allowance gives tenants more choice in where they live and it's fairer too. This is because with Local Housing Allowance:
- you will be entitled to the same amount of benefit as people in the same circumstances as you
- you can find out how much benefit you can get before you rent a property
- you can decide how much of your benefit you want to spend on renting a property (further info)
- you will usually get your benefit paid to you. It is up to you to pay the rent to your landlord
- you will find out about your benefit more quickly than before
To work out how much benefit you might get you need to:
- work out how many bedrooms you are entitled to- the number of people who live with you is used to work out how many bedrooms you are entitled to. We do not count other rooms such as a living room, kitchen or bathroom. You are entitled to one bedroom for:
every adult couple (married or unmarried)
any other adult aged 16 or over
any two children of the same sex aged under 16
any two children aged under 10
any other child
- check December's rates(70Kb)
or November's rates(70kb) (depending on when your claim was submitted) for the area you want to live in and the rates which applies to the number of bedrooms you are entitled to. These rates are updated each month and can be found on this page.
- find out if you can get the full amount of benefit. The amount of benefit you can get may be affected by:
any money you have coming in
any savings you have
how much your rent is
if we expect anyone living with you to pay towards your rent (non dependants)
if you share paying the rent with someone else who is not your partner
To work out your benefit entitlement, visit our web calculator.
If your rent is up to £15 lower than the Local Housing Allowance rate that applies to you, any benefit you might get will still be based on this rate. For example, if your rent is £90 and the Local Housing Allowance is £100, the maximum amount of benefit we could pay you is £100.
If your rent is more than £15 less than the Local Housing Allowance rate that applies to you, any benefit you might get will be based on the amount of your rent plus £15. For example, if your rent is £60 and the Local Housing Allowance is £100 the maximum amount of benefit we could pay you would be £75.
If there is a difference between the actual rent you are charged and your Housing Benefit entitlement, you will be responsible for making this up.
There is a scheme available to assist benefit claimants if they will suffer hardship as a result of rent restrictions. For more information, please see our section on Discretionary Housing Payments.
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