Local Housing Allowances
If you are a private-renter there is a ceiling on the amount of rent that can be counted when the council works out your Housing Benefit or when the DWP calculates your Housing Costs Element.
This ceiling is called the Local Housing Allowance.
If you are a single, childless, private renter aged under 35, the Local Housing Allowance for your claim is usually the shared accommodation rate, although there are some exceptions that are listed at the bottom of this page.
With effect from the 1st of October 2022 two new exceptions come into force, covering domestic abuse and modern slavery.
Domestic Abuse
You are exempt from the shared accommodation rate of LHA if, since you turned 16, you have had domestic violence inflicted or threatened by a partner, former partner or relative.
If this applies the one-bedroom accommodation rate of LHA will be used in deciding your claim.
To get this exception applied to your claim you must provide evidence from a person acting in an official capacity to say that your circumstances are consistent with having experienced domestic violence.
Here are some legal definitions:
Domestic violence means any incident, or pattern of incidents, of controlling behaviour, coercive behaviour, violence or abuse, including but not limited to, psychological abuse; physical abuse; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; or financial abuse regardless of the gender or sexuality of the victim.
Coercive behaviour means an act of assault, humiliation or intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish or frighten the victim.
Controlling behaviour means an act designed to make a person subordinate or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance or escape or regulating their everyday behaviour.
A person acting in an official capacity means a health care professional, a police officer, a registered social worker, your employer, or any public, voluntary, or charitable body which has had direct contact with you in connection with domestic violence.
Modern Slavery
The explanatory memorandum to the new regulations says:
Victims of modern slavery are determined by the Home Office’s National Referral Mechanism.
A claimant who has been the subject of a positive Conclusive Grounds decision which determines someone as a victim of modern slavery, can claim the exemption.’
The Law
Here is the new law.
Here is an existing law that gives the definition of domestic violence.
The existing exemptions
You are exempt from the shared accommodation rate of LHA if:
- You have spent periods amounting to three months living in hostels for homeless people where you got support to be rehabilitated or resettled. This includes refuges, and can include the coronavirus Everyone In scheme.
- You get DLA Care Component at the middle or high rates
- You get PIP Daily Living Component
- You are aged under 25, and were in care on your 16th birthday
- You have non-dependants living with you.
- You are “the subject of active multiagency management… under the Criminal Justice Act 2003”. A broader version of this exemption applies in Scotland.