Am I Entitled To Housing Allowance?

Description

If you appeal against the decision your appeal will be referred to an Independent Tribunal administered by The Tribunal Service. Please note that you may also appeal directly to the VTW if we have failed to notify you of our decision within 2 months of you serving a ‘written notice’ on the Council. If following this letter you are still aggrieved you then have 2 months to appeal directly to the Valuation Tribunal for Wales (VTW). The Applicable Amount is a standard amount set by the Government (UK and Wales) every year and is the amount which the law says you need for day to day living expenses. Rent Officers Wales do not accept any liability for actions or judgements that LHA claimants or others take arising from the use of the tables. The Valuation Office – https://www.buzzfeed.com/search?q=Valuation%20Office Agency (VOA) Rent Officers collect rental information from letting agents, landlords, tenants and other sources. In accordance with DWP legislation, Rent Officers are tasked with collecting a sufficient sample from the 12 month period ending 30 September prior to DWP publishing LHA rates on 1 April. If you are a private tenant who qualifies for Housing Benefit since before 7 April 2008 or a Housing Association tenant who qualifies for Housing Benefit, we pay you a ‘rent allowance’. Local Housing Allowance is only applicable to certain new claims made after 7 April 2008. If you are unsure if this applies to you please contact us.
The VOA has published the new LHA rates that take effect from 1st April 2015. All existing claims and any new and change of address claims made on or after 1st April 2015 will be based on new rates supplied by the VOA. LHA rates can change from 1 April each year. If you or your partner (if applicable) are aged over 60 we will automatically backdate your claim for up to 3 months providing you are able to show that you qualified for Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance and/or Council Tax Reduction during that period. If you have been housed by the Emergency Accommodations team and/or Homeless team. The government must lift LHA rates as an emergency measure, to cover average rents across every local market. Before using this you must work out how many rooms you can get an allowance for and which market area you fall under. What happens if my circumstances change?
It is a way of calculating housing benefit for private tenants, making it more simple and fair and giving you personal responsibility for paying your rent. Applies to accommodation with four or more bedrooms. To find out which LHA rate applies, you can use the room calculator on the Rent Service website. You can find the LHA rates on LHA-Direct by searching by postcode or local authority area. Can I find out the maximum Housing Benefit/Local Housing Allowance I am entitled to before I move into new accommodation? The rates for the same sized accommodation differ across the two BRMAs.
If you are subject to the benefit cap, this will reduce the amount of Housing Benefit you are entitled to. If you are renting from a private landlord service finder – https://www.leaseforlifementoring.co.uk/local-authority (this does not include Housing Association tenancies) and you are not eligible under the Local Housing Allowance scheme, we have to ask the Rent Service if the rent you are paying is reasonable. The rent allowance is usually paid to you every 2 weeks in arrears; however, we can sometimes pay it to your Housing Association or landlord. Benefit can be paid directly to the landlord if, the tenant is eight weeks or more in arrears with their rent. This will be reduced by 14% if you have one spare bedroom, or 25% if you have 2 or more spare bedrooms. The number of bedrooms a person can claim HB for depends on their household. The four bedroom rate is the maximum rate.