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Local Housing Allowance

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Introduction to Local Housing Allowance

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is the cornerstone of the Government’s Housing Benefit reform programme, which aims to simplify the Housing Benefit scheme and support the wider objectives for welfare reform.

Local Housing Allowance has been tried and tested with 18 Local Authorities since November 2003 / February 2004. These Local Authorities were called Pathfinders.

The fundamental aims of the Local Housing Allowance scheme are to promote:

Fairness: Tenants with similar circumstances living in the same area will get the same amount of Housing Benefit. At the moment the amount of benefit is set according to the rent actually paid.

Choice: Tenants will be able to choose the quality and price of their accommodation. For example, tenants could choose to pay more than the allowance they receive for accommodation that is larger than they qualify for, or move to a less expensive house and keep the difference up to a maximum of £15 per week.

Transparency: The scheme makes it easy to find out how much rent could be covered by Housing Benefit, as rent officer referrals are no longer needed.

Personal Responsibility: Paying the allowance to the tenant encourages them to take responsibility for budgeting and paying their rent themselves rather than having it paid for them.