LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE RATES

Local Housing Allowance starts on 7 April 2008. The Local Housing Rates will be set each month by the Rent Service which is part of Her Majesty’s Revenues and Customs Valuation Office and we will show these rates here. The LHA rates will also be available at our area offices.

The LHA rates for April 2008 will be available here from the end of March 2008. They will then be updated each month. There is only one set of LHA rates for the Isle of Wight.

The rate that will apply to your claim will depend on the date you make your claim. We will review your LHA rate every year on the anniversary of the day you claimed or if you have a change of circumstances that affects the number of bedrooms needed.

Which Rate?

The LHA rate you are entitled to depends on the number of bedrooms you need. You will need one bedroom for:

Single people over 35 years old and couples with no children:
If you are single and aged over 35 or a couple with no children you will get the one bedroom rate of LHA (see category B of chart), provided that you rent a property of at least this size and that it is self contained. This means that the accommodation has its own bathroom/toilet and kitchen and that these facilities are not shared. If the property is not self contained for your exclusive use you will only be entitled to the shared accommodation rate of LHA (see category A of chart).

Joint tenants
Some people rent properties with another person (who are not a couple). In these cases joint tenants will receive a rate of LHA based solely on the customer’s family plus any non-dependants that the customer has. In the situation where the joint tenant(s) are living in the property with no additional family or non-dependants, they will be entitled to the shared accommodation rate (category A rate).