What is Local Housing Allowance (LHA)?
LHA is a scheme that has been designed to be a fairer and simpler way of working out housing benefit for people on low income who need help paying their rent. The local housing allowance will be based on the rent levels for the area in which a person lives and how many people live with them, not the actual rent charged. This means prospective tenants will be able to shop around with their allowance.
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) was introduced on 7 April 2008 and is a new way of working out Housing Benefit for private tenants who are on a low income. ‘Private tenant’ means someone who rents a property or room from a private landlord. Local Housing Allowance will normally be paid to the tenant’s own bank or building society account and there will no longer be the option of asking for payment of Housing Benefit to be made direct to a landlord. To protect the interests of tenants, Angus Council has a safeguard policy. This will allow the consideration of direct payment to landlords where a tenant is in arrears with their rent, where it is thought that the tenant will have difficulty managing their affairs or is unlikely to pay their rent. For further information, download Angus Councils’ Safeguard policy (40 KB PDF) For further information on Local Housing Allowance please download either Local Housing Allowance: information for tenants (200 KB PDF) or Local Housing Allowance: inform
