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Housing Benefit under the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) arrangements

Money advice for tenants

The Local Housing Allowance was introduced from 7 April 2008 and is used to work out claims for Housing Benefit for tenants renting accommodation from a private landlord. If you live in council accommodation or other social housing, the Local Housing Allowance does not affect you. If you have been getting Housing Benefit since before 7 April 2008, the Local Housing Allowance will only apply to you if you change address or have a break in your claim.  

How will my benefit be paid?

If your claim is assessed under the Local Housing Allowance rules, you will usually have your benefit paid directly into your bank or building society account, if you have one, or by cheque. We will only make payments direct to your landlord under certain circumstances. You cannot choose to have your benefit paid direct to your landlord.

In some exceptional cases we may be able to pay direct to your landlord.  For further details please click here to see our LHA Safeguard Policy.

What will happen if I don’t use my benefit to pay my rent?

As a tenant you are responsible for paying your rent to your landlord. This is the same as for tenants who do not get benefit. If you do not pay your rent your landlord may apply to us to have your benefit paid to them or, they may take other action to recover their money including evicting you from your home.

Eviction means that:

• you will lose your home
• your benefit may not be paid to you in the future
• you may have difficulty finding new accommodation, as your landlord is unlikely to give you a reference
• you will still have to pay the landlord the money you owe and possibly extra money to cover any court costs
• an application for re-housing could be affected as you may be considered to have made yourself intentionally homeless
  

How can I pay my rent?

The easiest way to pay your rent is if you have your benefit paid into a bank or building society account. That way you can arrange to pay the rent to your landlord automatically. This is called a standing order. As long as you have enough money in your account, you won’t have to worry about remembering to pay your rent and your landlord will know the rent will be paid automatically.

If you do not already have a bank or building society account, you may want to set one up.

Opening a bank/building society account

If you don’t have a bank or building society account, now may be a good time to think about opening one. You should be able to open an account either at a bank or building society.

You can get advice about opening and running a bank account from any bank or building society. There are many organisations that can give you advice about money, including if you have already tried to open an account and have not been able to. Please see below details of some useful contacts.

Help with managing your money and debt

If you are concerned about managing your money or you have debts, try not to worry, but do not ignore your problem – it will not go away. If you cannot pay your rent because of money problems you may be evicted from your home. You must ask for help. There are many organisations that can give you advice about debt and money problems. They are listed below.

Dawn Advice

Dawn Advice is a member of the Citizens Advice Service and provide free, independent and confidential debt advice to anyone living in the North East (Durham, Northumberland, Tees Valley, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Tyne and Wear, Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland) or Cumbria (Carlisle, Keswick, Windermere, Kendal, Ulverston, Penrith, Barrow in Furness, Whitehaven).

Telephone them on 0300 3031931

free, confidential debt advice by telephone for anyone living in the North East or Cumbria

Please do not call if you are not eligible for this service.

The advice line is staffed by specialist debt advisers who provide a full debt management and advice service, dealing with all kinds of debt problems including urgent debt matters and bankruptcy.

For more details visit their website http://www.dawnadvice.org.uk/

If you are struggling to live on the money you have or are experiencing problems with debt, you may want to think about whether you are getting all the benefits or tax credits that you are entitled to.

For more information and advice you can visit the central government money advice section on the internet at Gov.uk. This also has a wide range of public service information and links to other organisations which you may find useful if you are looking for help or advice.

If you have any queries about Housing Benefit and how it is worked out using the Local Housing Allowance rates please contact:

Housing Benefit Section

Northumberland County Council

Wansbeck Square

Ashington

Northumberland

NE63 9XL

Telephone: 0845 600 6400

Fax: 01670 620098

E-mail: benefits@northumberland.gov.uk