Worthing Borough Council

LHA was piloted in 18 Councils for two years prior to April 2008, and The Department for Work & Pensions has commissioned independent research that has found that there has not been a significant increase in the level of rent arrears as the result of the introduction of LHA.

There are safeguards in place to identify tenants who are unlikely to pay the rent, so that enquiries can be made before Housing Benefit payments are issued.  Please remember that under the terms of the Data Protection Act, we are unable to release any details about a Housing Benefit claim to you (even to confirm whether or not a claim has been made) unless we have your tenant's written authority to do so.

If a Housing Benefit claim is in payment and

• There are eight weeks or more arrears; or
• The tenant is having deductions made from their Income Support, Job Seeker's Allowance or Employment & Support Allowance by The Department for Work & Pensions

We can consider issuing future payments to the landlord.  In the first instance you should confirm the situation in writing so that we can make further enquiries.

No.  Under the LHA scheme, there is no element of choice.  However, we will endeavor to ensure that tenants are safeguarded when their circumstances mean that they are unlikely to pay the rent.  Factors that may be considered include tenants who:

• Have learning difficulties
• Have medical or mental health conditions that impair the tenant's ability to manage their own financial affairs
• Have difficulty with reading, writing or language
• Have drug, alcohol or gambling addictions or dependencies
• Are prison leavers or who are fleeing domestic violence
• Have severe debt problems or who are undischarged bankrupts
• Have previously claimed Housing Benefit and our records indicate that they have a history of rent arrears

This list in not exhaustive, and each case will be considered on its own merits.

Assuming that the Housing Benefit claim remains in payment, you will receive a payment every four weeks, in respect of the previous four-week period.

If the LHA rate that's applied to the Housing Benefit calculation is more than the contractual rent, the rent that is used in the assessment is capped to the contractual rent plus £15.00 per week.

Generally, the payments sent to you will be a maximum of the contractual rent liability, and any additional Housing Benefit will be paid to the tenant.

However, if the tenant also has rent arrears, we can consider paying the excess to you towards the arrears.  Once the arrears have been cleared, payment of the excess will revert to the tenant.

Generally you do not have the right to appeal about your tenant's Housing Benefit award, including the LHA rate that has been used in the calculation.  However, you can appeal about decisions regarding who should receive the Housing Benefit payments.

This depends on the cause of the overpayment.  If you receive Housing Benefit payments, you have a duty to notify the Council about any changes in the tenant's circumstances that you become aware of (for example, they vacate the accommodation).

You are only likely to be asked to repay an overpayment if we consider that you could reasonably have been expected to know about the change in circumstances that caused the overpayment, or if we consider that you contributed towards a fraudulent benefit claim.

The rules about the size criteria have been changed from 6 April 2009 and from that date if your tenant would be entitled to six or more bedrooms, their Housing Benefit entitlement will be assessed using the five bedroom rate of LHA.

This restriction will apply immediately to all new and change of address claims received from 6 April 2009 onwards.  The majority of existing claims will continue to be assessed using the LHA rate for 6 bedrooms or more until the anniversary date (12 months after the initial claim) plus a further twenty-six weeks.