Citizens’ Advice: Housing Benefit changes to Local Housing Allowance claims

The Portland Rise Estate, N4

If you are in receipt of Local Housing Allowance to pay for your private rented accommodation then you may be affected by the recent changes to Housing Benefit – the rules on how much you can claim have changed. The council has written to everyone potentially affected to spell out these changes and estimates that approximately 3000 households in Hackney will be affected. Many will be protected for several months by a transitional protection period, but some people will be affected sooner rather than later.

If you’re unsure as to how and when the changes will affect you, please do contact the Housing Benefit department or Hackney Citizens Advice Bureau for further details.

We explain the changes below in general terms.

If you were already in receipt of Local Housing Allowance before 1 April, your claim will be protected until your anniversary date and for a further nine month transitional period.

Your anniversary date is the date every twelve months when your claim is reassessed.  For example, if you claimed Housing Benefit for the first time for private rented accommodation on 1 August 1 2010, then your anniversary date will be 1 August 2011. You would then be protected for a further nine months before the new caps are applied to your claim – so in this example, you would be protected until 1 May 2012.

If any major change is made to your claim between now and the end of your transitional period, then you may find that the caps are applied to your claim sooner rather than later.

This applies if you move to a new address, or close your claim and then later start a new claim, or if somebody moves out of your home so that you are entitled to a smaller category of dwelling.  Check with Housing Benefit or Hackney Citizens Advice Bureau for more details of when and by how much your claim will be affected.

If you do find that you have a shortfall between your Housing Benefit and your rent then there are a number of options available.  We do recommend that you talk to your landlord to try to renegotiate your rent if possible.  Landlords who agree to a rent reduction to the level of Housing Benefit can then arrange for direct payments from the council.

If your landlord won’t reduce the rent, don’t panic.  There are still a number of options available including applying for a Discretionary Housing Payment, although this is a discretionary payment, so not guaranteed, or asking non-dependents to increase their contributions to the rent.  Remember that your landlord cannot legally evict you without first going to court to obtain a court order.

For more advice on this and other issues, visit Hackney Citizens Advice Bureau, at 236 – 238 Mare Street, London E8 1HE (tel: 020 8525 6350).