Housing Benefit is means tested. This means we look at the money a household has coming in. We look at and compare:
- the household composition
- the household income
- any savings
- rent
We can only pay up to a certain amount of rent, based on levels set by the Rent Service, not on the rent you charge your tenant. This means that Housing Benefit may not cover all the rent you are charging. The levels of rent we can pay up to is called Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and depend on the number of bedrooms the tenant is considered to need.
One bedroom is allowed for each of the following:
- every adult*/couple
- any other adult aged 16+
- any 2 children of the same sex up to the age of 15
- any 2 children regardless of sex under 10
- any other child
*We must usually limit benefit for single people under 35, without children, to a ‘shared accommodation rate’ set by the Rent Service. For more details about the Shared Accommodation Rate please see the Department of Works and Pensions leaflet entitled DWP – Shared Accommodation Rate in 'Downloads'.
LHA amounts can differ month to month, but once the rate is applied this will not change unless the claimants circumstances do or 52 weeks have elapsed.
Housing benefit does not cover some service charges like heating, water or meals, so we cannot include those in the rent.
For more information about LHA visit https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/secure/default.aspx
