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Housing element
Hello all,
Can someone point me in the right direction for finding out how the housing element of Universal Credit will be calculated for annual increases, if any, or whther the overall increase to Universal Credit (1% ive been informed?) would cover this? Is it simlar to the way current LHA is calculated?
Many thanks
The 1% increases apply to the benefit rates or allowances.
Rental increases will be related to actual housing costs but LHA levels are also linked to 1% ATM (unless market increases are lower).
Hello all,
Can someone point me in the right direction for finding out how the housing element of Universal Credit will be calculated for annual increases, if any, or whther the overall increase to Universal Credit (1% ive been informed?) would cover this? Is it simlar to the way current LHA is calculated?
LHA for UC will be set in a similar way to LHA for HB.
The LHA uprating for UC (linked to CPI) is covered by Schedule 1 para 4 of the The Rent Officers (Universal Credit Functions) Order 2013
( http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/382/pdfs/uksi_20130382_en.pdf )
However, this doesn’t seem to cover the 1% cap on uprating for LHA for 2014 and 2015 (announced in Autumn Statement 5 Dec 2012) [and the 1% cap also doesn’t seem to have reached the HB equivalent ]
I guess there’s no rush to legislate for these changes : possibly DWP wanted to see the outcome of the Z2K challenge?