Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Local Housing Allowance

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are means tested benefits designed to help people on a low income to pay their rent and/or Council Tax. People cannot claim if they have savings of more than £16000.00 unless they receive Pension Credit paid at the Guaranteed Credit rate.

Housing Benefit can be paid to:

Tenants in privately rented accommodation, as a direct payment to the claimant or, in certain circumstances to the landlord (including housing associations).

Council Tax Benefit is paid as a rebate to the Council Tax Account.

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit may only be claimed when the building occupied is the claimant’s home and the claimant is liable to make payments in respect of that home.

People receiving Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit must notify the Council in writing if there are any changes in circumstance such as:

children leaving school or leaving home
people moving in or out of the house (including lodgers and sub-tenants)
a change in the income, or the income of anyone living in the house;
changes in capital or savings of £200
anyone in the house becomes a student, goes on a Youth Training Scheme, goes into hospital or a nursing home, goes into prison, or gets, changes or leaves a job;
changes in rent;
a house move;
the person in receipt of benefit or their partner are going away for more than one month;
the person in receipt of benefit receives any decision from the Home Office.

Claiming Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit

Claims are made by completing an application form and providing the information and evidence requested. One form can be used to claim both Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. You can download a pdf version of the claim form or contact the Council’s Benefit Office to request one in the post.

If you are a tenant of Newport City Homes you can hand in your completed application form and evidence to one of the following designated offices:

Ringland: 8 – 11 Ringland Centre

Alway: 158 Lliswerry Road

Bettws: 9 – 11 Bettws Centre

Duffryn: 8 Sandpiper Way

Central: Nexus House, Lower Dock Street

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are normally awarded from the Monday following the date the claim was made or treated as made.

Web Benefits Calculator

You can use the online benefits calculator to see if you are eligible for Benefit and how much you could receive. Remember this calculation is an estimate based on the information you supply. For a full evaluation make a formal claim as soon as possible.

Local Housing Allowance

The New Rules for Housing Benefit:

From 7 April 2008 there is a new way of calculating entitlement to Housing Benefit for some private sector tenants. The way in which the maximum amount of Housing Benefit is worked out is changing. The Rent Officer Service used to decide whether the rent charged on an individual property was fair or was too high and the maximum Housing Benefit was based on their decision.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is the new way of working out the maximum rent figure to be used in the calculation of Housing Benefit and will replace Rent Officer Decisions for anyone affected by the new rules. The Rent Service will issue maximum rent levels for all sizes of properties in a given area – this is called the Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA). Housing Benefit claims will therefore be assessed on a set amount, the LHA. The LHA amount depends on the number of bedrooms required by the claimant’s household – this is called the size criteria.

The other change is that Housing Benefit will almost always be paid to the claimant. It will be the claimant’s responsibility to make sure that they pay the rent to the landlord.

Who will Local Housing Allowance apply to?

You will come under the new scheme if you pay rent to a private landlord and:

You apply for Housing Benefit for the first time on or after the 7 April 2008;
You change your address on or after the 7 April 2008 (this includes a change of room within the same property);
You have a break in your claim of one week or more on or after the 7 April 2008;

Local Housing Allowance does not apply to the following:

Council Tenants
Housing Association Tenants or tenants of a Registered Social Landlord
Some supported housing
Tenancies that started before the 15 January 1989
Tenants living in caravans, houseboats or hostels
Tenancies where the Rent Officer has decided that a large part of the rent is for meals cooked for the tenants.

Housing Benefit will continue to be worked out under the existing rules for claimants that fall into any of the above categories.

How does the new scheme work?

The maximum amount of Housing Benefit that could be awarded is set beforehand by the Rent Service. The maximum rent figure will be the same for every same-size household in the area they live in. If the rent charged is higher than the LHA amount the maximum rent figure used in the calculation is the LHA amount. If the rent charged is lower than the LHA amount, then the maximum rent figure used is the rent charged plus up to £15.00 provided this does not exceed the LHA amount.

Example:

Rent charged = £90 per week

LHA amount = £120 per week

Maximum Housing Benefit = £105 (£90 + £15)

Broad Rental Market Areas

The Rent Service has divided the country into Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMAs). There is only one BRMA in Newport and the Rent Service has issued the following LHA amounts which are applicable for the month of September 2010:

Category Type	LHA for BRMA (£ per week)
	Newport
Shared Accommodation	57.69
1 Bedroom	86.54
2 Bedrooms	109.62
3 Bedrooms	126.92
4 Bedrooms	173.08
5 Bedrooms	225.00

The Rent service will constantly monitor the levels of rent and will publish new LHA amounts every month. This is to ensure that the correct LHA amount is used in the calculation of Housing Benefit that best reflects the state of the rental market when the claimant applies for Housing Benefit. The above figures will be updated each month where necessary. This does not mean that claims are reassessed every month.

The LHA amount used in the calculation is valid for 12 months or until the claimant has a change of circumstance such as a change of address or a change that affects the bedroom requirements. At the end of the 12 month period and provided there have been no changes, the LHA amount is reviewed and the claim reassessed based on the LHA amount that applies on the anniversary date (12 months from when the claimant applied for benefit).

The Size Criteria

One bedroom is allowed for each of the following:

A Couple
Someone who is 16 or over
Two children of the same sex until they are 16
Two children who are younger than 10
A child (someone under 16)

Each person is only counted once in the first group that they would come into. We do not count everyone in the house when working out the number of bedrooms required. We count the tenant and their partner, as well as any children or young people they are responsible for. If the tenant has any other adults who are not boarders or lodgers, we also count those. However, we do not count foster children or joint tenants.

Example

A claim is received after the 7 April 2008 from a married couple. They have moved into rented accommodation in the Caerleon area of Newport and are charged £130.00 per week. They live in the property with their 10 month old baby, 5 year old son and 17 year old daughter. The bedroom requirements for this household are 3 and the LHA amount is £126.92 as the property falls within the Newport BRMA.

The claim is assessed based on the maximum rent figure (LHA amount) of £126.92 per week but the award of Housing Benefit is still means tested. This means that if the claimant’s income is higher than the amount the Government says he and his family need to live on then 65% of his excess income is deducted from the maximum rent of £126.92 to arrive at the weekly Housing Benefit award. The Housing Benefit is then paid directly to the claimant by BACS straight into the claimant’s bank account.

Shared Accommodation

The LHA amount for Shared Accommodation applies to people that live in non self contained accommodation, e.g. a single claimant lives in a room with shared use of a kitchen, living room or bathroom.

This rate will apply to:

single claimants under the age of 25 regardless of the type of accommodation that they live in;
childless couples if they live in non self contained accommodation;
joint tenants if they share part of the accommodation, e.g. shared use of the kitchen.

This rate will not apply to:

care leavers under 22, or a customer who lives with a care leaver under 22 who is their partner, and they have no dependent children;
single claimants or couples who have no dependent children and who have the Severe Disability Premium included in the calculation of their benefit.

In these circumstances the one bedroom LHA rate will apply whether or not they share accommodation and regardless of its size.

For further information please contact:

Housing Benefit Section
Newport City Council
Entrance 3
Civic Centre
Newport
South Wales
NP20 4UR
Telephone: (01633) 232960/232957

Email: benefits@newport.gov.uk

Opening Hours
Monday – Friday 9.30am – 4.00pm

author: webteam

last update: Tue, 31 Aug 2010