Forum Home → Discussion → Housing costs → Thread
New Power To Pay LHA Direct
Apparently this “new” power will only be used to pay LHA if the landlord agrees to reduce the rent to an affordable level.
The existing power enables LHA to be paid where the tenant is “likely to have difficulty in relation to the mangement of his financial affairs”
Am I being thick, or is it not the case that a person who cannot afford the rent (particularly when LHA does not cover the whole rent), that person is” likely to have difficulty in relation to the mangement of his financial affairs.” If so what difference will the supposed “new” power make?
Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why payment of morgage interest as housing costs is made direct to lenders, yet payments of HB direct to reputable landlords is discouraged
I agree that it looks like the “new” powers won’t have a great deal of impact.
As has been pointed out on another forum, if a landlord has rent that is quite a bit higher than the LHA, it is likely
a) There will already be a safeguard in place so they are already receiving direct payment
or
b) If a safeguard has not been agreed, just wait for a period and the tenant will fall into 8 weeks arrears and the landlord will be paid direct.
In the case of B, the landlord doesn’t get any less money than they would by reducing the rent to LHA level (assuming the tenant hands over the HB they receive).
In my experience most landlords of benefit claimants know the LHA levels and use these as a basis for the rent they charge anyway.
i suppose we will start to see cases where these same landlords now initially “charge” a much higher rent then reluctantly agree to reduce it to LHA levels to get direct payments.
“Apparently this “new” power will only be used to pay LHA if the landlord agrees to reduce the rent to an affordable level.”
Well thats not what the new regs say (not at the moment anyway)
“(iv)the relevant authority considers that it will assist the claimant in securing or retaining a tenancy.”; “
Perhaps we can anticipate some comprehensive and legally founded guidance on this matter.