Local housing allowance goes live nationally

A new way of calculating Housing Benefit will help tenants become more financially independent and put them on the road back to work, announced Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform Stephen Timms today.

Under the new system benefit will be paid directly to the customer to encourage them to take more personal control over their financial affairs by budgeting and paying rent directly to their landlords.

There will also be safeguards in place for those tenants who need more support in managing their own budgets.

Launching the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Stephen Timms, said: 'The LHA is a central part of the Government's wider programme of benefit reform. It's a radical change to the way Housing Benefit is paid in the private rented sector and will help people take action towards managing their own bank accounts, making it easier for them to move off benefits and in to work.

'Having a bank account means that people are job-ready and the LHA will help towards bringing increased responsibility to hundreds of thousands of people.

'We also want to see a Housing Benefit system that will ensure people in similar circumstances will receive the same amount of benefit as others in their area. I am confident that the success of the LHA in the first 18 authorities will be reflected as the scheme rolls out nationally.'

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) will apply to private sector tenants who make a new claim for benefit and for existing tenants who move address, on or after 7 April 2008. It applies to tenants in the de-regulated private rented sector only.

Designed to be simpler and to increase choice and responsibility for tenants, the LHA is a flat rate of Housing Benefit which varies according to the size of household and the area in which the customer lives.

The LHA has already been introduced in 18 local authorities. Nine pathfinder authorities introduced it in 2003/04 and these were subject to extensive and independent evaluation. A further nine authorities implemented the LHA in 2005 to test the efficiency of the scheme.