Ceredigion County Council website

Every privately rented property has a Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate. The maximum amount of benefit you can get is 100% of this rate. You would normally get this amount if you are on Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance (Income based), Employment and Support Allowance (Income related) or Guaranteed Pension Credit.

The rate of LHA you will be entitled to depends on the amount of bedrooms you and your household require. You are entitled to one bedroom for:

• every adult couple (married or unmarried)
• any other adult aged 16 or over
• any two children of the same sex aged under 16
• any two children aged under 10
• any other child

Once you have worked out how many bedrooms you are entitled to, use the table below to see which LHA applies to you:

Single claimants under 35 years of age will be entitled to the 1 Bedroom shared facilities LHA rate. Single claimants over 35 years of age and couples with no children will be entitled to the 1 Bedroom self-contained rate of LHA, providing they rent property that is self-contained (i.e., exclusive use of 2 or more rooms or exclusive use of one room, bathroom, toilet and kitchen/cooking facilities).

You may be entitled to an extra bedroom if:

• Disabled child or disabled non-dependant adult requiring overnight care
• Couple unable to share a bedroom due to disability
• Children unable to share due to disability

If you rent from a registered housing association or other registered social landlord the amount of Housing Benefit you get will be based on the number of bedrooms your household needs:

The rules allow one bedroom for:

• Every adult couple (married or unmarried)
• Any other adult aged 16 or over
• Any two children of the same sex aged under 16
• Any two children aged under 10
• Any other child
• A non-resident carer

If you are classed as having one or more extra bedrooms your Housing Benefit may be reduced.

If you are under-occupying there will be a reduction in your Housing Benefit of:

• 14% for under-occupancy by one bedroom (approximately £13 per week)
• 25% for under-occupancy by two bedrooms or more (approximately £23 per week)

You may be entitled to an extra bedroom if:

• Disabled child or disabled non-dependant adult requiring overnight care
• Couple unable to share a bedroom due to disability
• Children unable to share due to disability

If you believe this applies to you, please make your request in writing and you will be required to provide medical evidence.

Further information can be found on the Department for Works & Pensions Housing Benefit Claimant Factsheet

If you, and your partner (if applicable), have reached the qualifying age for State Pension Credit and qualify for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction, we can automatically backdate your benefit/reduction up to 3 months before the date you made your claim (as long as you were entitled to benefit/reduction for that period).

For us to work out how much benefit/reduction you will be entitled to, you will need to provide documentary evidence of your income, savings and rent (if applicable) for the period you want to claim.

If you have not yet reached the qualifying age for State Pension Credit, if you qualify for Housing Benefit, we will normally pay your benefit from the Monday after you asked us for an application form (if you return the application form within one calendar month of contacting us).

If you qualify for Council Tax Reduction we will normally pay your reduction from the date you asked for an application form (if you return the application form within one month of contacting us).

Sometimes we can pay benefit/reduction for a period before the date you claimed. This is called backdating. The maximum we can backdate your claim is:

• 1 month for Housing Benefit or Local Housing Allowance
• 3 months for Council Tax Reduction

from the date you make your backdating request, providing you can show that:

• You had 'good cause' for not making your claim earlier
• You could not claim throughout the period you want your claim backdated
• You will need to provide documentary evidence of your income, savings and rent (if applicable) for the period you want to claim

A request for backdating must be made in writing.

We will decide if we can backdate your benefit/reduction based on the information you give us and if you disagree with our decision, you can make an appeal.

Any change in your income or circumstances could affect your claim. This also applies to the circumstances of anyone living in your household.

If you don’t update within one month of the change happening, you could miss out or have to pay money back.

Changes you need to notify us of include:

• you change address
• you or your partner starts work, changes job or has a pay increase
• there is any change to any income that you or your partner receive (DWP benefits, pensions etc)
• one of your children leaves school or you have had a baby
• anyone moves in or out of the property, even on a temporary basis
• you have a new partner or become married or separated
• there is a change in your savings
• you start or stop paying childcare costs or if the amount changes
• your rent changes
• anyone in your home has a change of circumstances

Please note these are examples and you should tell us immediately about any change that might affect your benefit.

A non-dependant is a person aged 18 or over who lives in your home or uses your home as their main residence on a non-commercial basis, usually a grown-up son, daughter, friend or relative.

Normally, Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction is reduced for each non-dependant living in your home and is based on the weekly gross income the non-dependant receives.  These figures are set by the Government.

In light of this, you will need to tell us if your non dependant’s income changes, circumstances change, or a non-dependant moves into, or out of your home.

When do you not make a non-dependant deduction?

There will be no non-dependant deduction made in the following cases:

• If you or your partner (if applicable) are registered blind
• If you or your partner (if applicable) are receiving Attendance Allowance
• If you or your partner (if applicable) are receiving the care component of Disability Living Allowance at any rate
• If you or your partner (if applicable) are receiving the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment
• If you or your partner (if applicable) are in receipt of an Armed Forces Independence Payment
• For Housing Benefit - non-dependants aged under 25 and in receipt of Income Support (IS) or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA(IB)) or Employment and Support Allowance (Income Related) which does not include an amount for the support component or work-related activity component or Universal Credit (where the award is calculated on the basis that the non-dependant does not have any earned income)
• For Council Tax Reduction – non-dependants in receipt of Income Support (IS) or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA(IB)) or Employment and Support Allowance (Income Related) or Universal Credit (where the award is calculated on the basis that the non-dependant does not have any earned income)
• Non-dependants in receipt of Pension Credit
• Non-dependants who are full-time students (a deduction may be applied if the student is in remunerative work over the summer vacation)
• Non-dependants who are youth trainees
• Non-dependants who are in prison
• Non-dependants in hospital for 52 weeks or more

Housing Benefit

What are the current levels of deductions for Housing Benefit.

Please note: Remunerative work is defined as employment for 16 hours or more per week (for which payment is made or expected to be made).

Benefit is usually only paid for the home in which you are currently living and paying rent. However, there are some circumstances where you may be able to get help for two homes:

Fear of Violence

Where you have left your former home and remain absent due to fear of violence occurring either in your home by another person or outside your home by a former member of your family, benefit may be paid for a maximum of 52 weeks. For benefit to be paid, you must intend to return to live in the property you left.

Students or Trainees

Couples who are living in separate rented accommodation may receive benefit for both properties. The Local Authority must consider that separate accommodation is unavoidable and it is reasonable to pay benefit on two homes. There is no time limit on this provision.

Overlapping benefit on two homes

Generally people plan their move in advance and will normally be able to avoid having to pay rent on two homes by giving their former landlord enough notice to end their tenancy.

However, where you have moved from one rented dwelling to another rented dwelling and you still have to pay rent for notice required on you former home, the Local Authority will only consider awarding benefit on both properties for a maximum of four weeks where both the following conditions are met:

1. only for the period after you have moved into you new home
2. only if your liability to pay rent on both homes could not reasonably have been avoided.

Large Families

If you have a large family and the Local Authority has housed you in two separate dwellings, benefit may be paid on both properties.

Please note these points apply to recipients of Housing Benefit only (not those receiving the Housing Element of Universal Credit).

The Benefit Cap was introduced by the Government in April 2013 to limit the total amount of benefits that working-age people can receive, so that households on out-of-work benefits should no longer receive more in welfare payments than the average weekly wage for working households 

For more information see the Government's Benefit Cap page.

Tenant consent

We can discuss a claim if the tenant gives us permission by signing a tenant consent form. Where a claimant has not asked for benefit to be paid directly to the landlord, we cannot give any information about a claim at all.

We can also give landlords information if a tenant has signed a letter confirming that their landlord can act on their behalf. Tenant consent can vary between tenants and we can confirm the claimant's intentions whenever we feel that it is suitable.

We may provide landlords with other information if the needs of the claimant make it suitable or if it helps the benefits administration e.g. when we are waiting for more information from the tenant.

Information we can give

If you contact us, we are limited with the information we can give you because a claimant’s information is confidential. However, we can give certain information in some cases where the landlords are seen as a 'person affected'. This could be when:

• We are recovering an overpayment from you. We can let you know the amount, period and reasons for an overpayment being recovered
• We are paying Housing Benefit directly to you. We can let you know the amount, weekly benefit rate and period covered by payment sent directly to you, and the date direct payments stop

Tenant Arrears

Housing Benefit

We recommend that, if a tenant is starting to build up rent arrears (more than 2 weeks), you should get in touch with us before it gets to eight weeks. This will allow us to investigate whether there is a problem that needs addressing. It is possible that future payments may be made to you where appropriate. To consider this, we will need proof of the arrears. We will also explain why, if we’re not able to make payments direct to you as the Landlord.

Universal Credit

If we’re not able to make payments to you as the Landlord, it may be because your tenant is receiving Universal Credit (UC) from the Department for Work and Pensions, and Housing Benefit cannot be paid if claimant is in receipt of Universal Credit. This is because UC payments will include all eligible housing costs, where appropriate - which means that claimants will be responsible for paying their rent themselves.

If a tenant is having difficulty paying their rent, please see the Government's Universal Credit and rented housing: guide for landlords page for further advice for Landlords where their tenant is receiving UC.

If you do not have all the evidence and information we need to support your claim, do not delay sending in your application form or you could miss out on benefit. You can send the evidence in later.

Evidence may be needed to support your new claim for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction, Discretionary Housing Payment, or before we can action a change of circumstance, such as proof of your income, savings, or proof of rental payments. However, we will advise you what, if anything, you will need to provide.

Evidence can be submitted via email attachment to revenues@ceredigion.gov.uk with your reference number or full name and address, through the post (please do not send valuable documents through the post) or at one of our Customer Service Centres.