Local housing allowance (LHA) rates

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates

Until April 2012 the LHA rates were set each month by Rent Officers working for the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) which is independent of the Council. However, from April 2012 the rates are fixed for one year. They will not alter on a month by month basis but will be changed every April. LHA rates from April 2013 will be set either at the lower of the 30th percentile of local rents or the April 2012 rate increased by 2.2 per cent. The LHA rates will also be available at our Benefits Service reception at the Customer Centre.

LHA started in April 2008. The current LHA rates for 2012/13 and for 2013/14 are available from the downloads area on the right hand side of this page. There is only one set of rates for the York area.

Your claim will be based on the rate in force at the time you make your claim. It will be reviewed after a year or if you have a change of circumstances that affects the number of bedrooms needed.

The maximum housing benefit you can get will be the lower of the LHA rate or your weekly rent. Remember your housing benefit might be reduced because of your income or any other adults living in your household.

Which rate?

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

• every adult couple or single tenant aged 35 or over
• any other adult aged 16 or over (this includes boarders or sub-tenants)
• any two children of the same sex
• any two children, regardless of sex, under the age of 10
• any other child

The Rent Service have a web-based bedroom calculator.

The number of rooms you need may change from time to time, e.g. when a child reaches the age of 10 or 16 years. The maximum LHA rate is the four bedroom rate (E4).

Special rules apply if you are a joint tenant, a single person or a couple with no children.

Joint tenants are people who are not living together as a couple but share a property and are named on the tenancy agreement. For each joint tenant we will use the LHA rate for their own household not including any family of the other joint tenants.

For single people under 35 with no children we will use the shared accommodation rate of LHA regardless of the type of property they actually live in. However, there are some exceptions to this. 

For single people aged 35 or over and couples with no children we will use the one bedroom self-contained rate, provided they actually live in self-contained accommodation. If they live in accommodation with shared facilities then we will use the shared accommodation rate.

April 2012 to March 2013

LHA rates for York for the year April 2012 to March 2013 

April 2013 to March 2014

LHA rates for York for the year April 2013 to March 2014