Determining Housing Benefit
Calculation of Housing Benefit
For information on the calculation of Housing Benefit, please
click on the link below:
How is Housing Benefit
Calculated?
The rent figure we use to work out your Housing
Benefit
Housing Benefit is help towards your rent only. Your rent
may include service charges that are not eligible for Benefit such
as;
- Fuel costs
- Meals
- Water charges
- Counselling/Support charges
- Personal care charges
- Personal cleaning & laundry
Unless you rent from a Registered Social Landlord (Housing
Associations), then the rent you pay will not necessarily be the
rent that is taken into account when calculating Housing Benefit
entitlement. When calculating Housing Benefit, we have to
take into account a fair rent for the property / accommodation that
you are renting.
Since April 2008, the Housing Benefit scheme has changed so that
the fair rent is determined by Local Housing Allowances. For
more information on Local Housing Allowances (LHA's), please click
on the link below:
Local Housing Allowance
However, there are still some properties that are exempt from
the LHA rules and still need a fair rent assessment.
These claims, as well as those where Housing Benefit has been
continuously paid since before April 2008, have to have a fair rent
assessment determined by The Rent Service.
The Rent Officer/The Rent Service
The Rent Service (TRS) is now part of The Valuations Agency and
one of their duties is to carry out fair rent assessments for
council's that are responsible for administering Housing
Benefit. In such instances, the council will send various
information regarding the accommodation you rent including the
following:
- The amount of rent you are charged.
- The age and number of people who love with you.
- The type of accommodation you live in.
- Your tenancy details.
- The number of rooms in your accommodation and those that are
used by your household.
The Rent Service will take this information and make comparisons
with other rents charged in the area and the rent being charged for
similar properties in other similar residential area's. Using
all of the data available to them they will make an assessment of a
fair rent for the type of property you are renting and of a fair
rent of a property that your circumstances needs. They may
decide to restrict the amount of Housing Benefit we can pay if it
is decided that the property exceeds your needs, i.e. it is over
accommodated, or if the rent that you are being charged is higher
than other comparable rents.
The Rent Service will then send the council a determination and
the assessed rent figure is what shall be used in the Benefit
calculation. The determination will usually run for 12 months
unless there is a significant change to the property or the
number of people included within the household.
Pre-tenancy determinations (PTD)
If you wish to claim Housing Benefit on a new property and
are not subject to Local Housing
Allowance rules, you can ask the Rent Service to make a
valuation before you commit to a new tenancy. You may also do
this if your existing tenancy is coming to an end and you have been
offered a new one at a higher rent.
To do this you must contact us on (01527) 881288 to request
a Pre Tenancy Determination form.
Please note, most new claims or changes in address from April
2008 will be subject to Local Housing
Allowance rules so a Pre Tenancy Determination will not be
applicable.
If a fair rent assessment or pre tenancy determination is made,
the amount of Housing Benefit you are entitled to shall be
dependant on your income and circumstances. A fair rent
assessment details the amount of rent to be used in your Benefit
calculation and is not a decision on how much help you will
receive.
If you do not agree with the decision made
If you do not agree with the decision that has been made by the
Rent Officer you should write and tell us. We can then ask
the Rent Officer to look at the decision again based on the
information you have put in your letter. Please note if we
ask the Rent Officer to look at the decision again the maximum rent
we could pay may go down, remain the same or increase
