Local Housing Allowance (LHA)

Local Housing Allowance is paid to tenants on low incomes renting from private landlords.

Local Housing Allowance is a new way (from April 2008) of working out the maximum Housing Benefit you can get if you pay rent to a private landlord. Your LHA rate is based on the number of bedrooms your household needs and the area that you live in.

The actual amount of benefit you get still depends on your income and savings.

Which LHA area do I live in?

LHA rates are set for large areas, called Broad Market Rental Areas (BRMAs), each month. They are set by the Valuation Office, not by the Council.

The Lewes district is covered by three BRMA’s areas.

Eastbourne BRMA: covers all of Seaford.
Crawley and Reigate BRMA: covers Plumpton, Newick, Chailey, Ditchling and Wivelsfield Green.
Brighton and Hove BRMA: covers the rest of the district.

How many rooms do I need?

The number of bedrooms allowed depends on who lives with you as part of your household. Generally, one bedroom will be allowed for:

Every adult couple
Every other adult aged 16 or over
Any two children of the same sex under 16
Any two children regardless of sex under 10
Any other child

There is a limit of five bedrooms. This means that if your family would need more than five bedrooms, you would still be limited to the LHA rate for five bedrooms.

Please note: People moving in or out of your accommodation will affect the LHA rate used to assess your entitlement to Housing Benefit if the number of rooms you need changes.

What is shared accommodation?

If you have one bedroom but share other accommodation (kitchen, bathroom etc) with other people not part of your household, then you will only be entitled to the ‘shared room’ LHA rate not the ‘one bedroomed self-contained’ rate. This applies to joint tenants, sub tenants etc.

This restriction does not apply if you have the ‘Severe Disablement Premium’ in the calculation of your Housing Benefit or if you have dependant children. Please contact us for more information.

LHA Calculator

LHA Rates

The LHA rates are updated each month and can change. The rate that you receive is determined by the date that you move in or the date that you make the claim. The LHA rate stays the same for a year once your claim has been set up.

How is LHA paid?

In most cases we will pay Housing Benefit under the LHA scheme to the tenant, direct into a bank account. The tenant is then responsible for paying the full rent to the landlord.

However, to protect vulnerable tenants and to reassure their landlords, we have discretion to pay the landlord. A 'Safeguard Policy' sets out the guidelines on how we decide this.

Applications for payments to be made to the landlord can be made by either party. There will need to be sufficient evidence a claimant is likely to have difficulty in managing their finances.