Local Housing Allowance
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is used to establish the entitlement of Housing Benefit for privately rented accommodation based upon the rental market area and the household size.
With LHA, your benefit will be based on:
- Who lives with you
- Which area you live in
- How much money you have coming in to the household
- What savings you have
Under local Housing Allowance rules, you may be limited to the amount of Housing Benefit you are entitled to. The Local Housing Allowance rates are set by the rent service and sent to us to apply. Ryedale District Council has two sets of LHA rates for Scarborough and York.Under local Housing Allowance rules, you may be limited to the amount of Housing Benefit you are entitled to. The Local Housing Allowance rates are set by the rent service and sent to us to apply. Ryedale District Council has two sets of LHA rates for Scarborough and York.
With LHA your household size is used to determine the number of bedrooms allowed within the calculation to establish the eligible amount of Housing benefit. This number may differ from the actual amount of bedrooms in your house.
Your Housing benefit entitlement is determined through the LHA rate for your rental market area with the amount of bedrooms you are allowed. However, the specified LHA rate for the amount of bedrooms allowed may not be the amount of benefit you are entitled to depending upon your income, savings and circumstances.
Your rent being charged is not used to determine the amount of Housing benefit you are entitled to, therefore you may need to find additional funds to top up your rent account if your housing benefit does not cover your full rent.
The LHA rates can be found here Local housing allowance rates April 2020 - March 2021 (PDF, 1 page, 37kb)
Single and under 35
If you are single and under the age of 35 with no dependants, under LHA you will only be entitled to the one bedroom shared accommodation rate even if you do not live in shared accommodation.
Number of Bedrooms Allowed
Your household is used to determine the amount of bedrooms under LHA rates. You’re entitled to one bedroom for the following:
- Every adult couple
- Any other adult aged 16 or above
- Any two children aged under 10 of the same or opposite sex
- Any two children of the same sex aged under 16
- Any other child aged under 16
Additional Bedrooms Allowed
Additional bedrooms may be allowed for non-resident overnight carer, disabled couples, a severely disabled child who cannot share with another child or registered foster carers.
Please note you are only allowed a maximum of 4 bedrooms under LHA rates.
Local Housing Allowance rates apply for a yearly period beginning on the 1 of April. Each Housing benefit claim determined by LHA rates will be reviewed on the 1 of April or the first Monday following this date if the rent is charged weekly.
If you have a change in circumstances let us know as soon as possible by submitting the change of Circumstances online form.
