Hi,

Does anyone know the procedure for transferring from HB onto LHA.

I have clients who would get a higher rate of benefit if on LHA due to the more generous rates. We have been advised by the local authority that the claims need to be broken for a week in order to start a claim for LHA. This will be costly for clients. Does anyone know if this is correct?

Also there is apparently an issue over whether people can even break their claims in order to increase their entitlement. Does anyone have any more information on this?

Also in regard to rent restrictions, if existing clients have rent restrictions and the last determination was done 52 weeks ago can they ask for another and would this then be based on the LHA?


Thank you.

There is much debate over this in the LA community.
The last I saw was that the DWP's view is that claimants cannot choose to break their claim and move to LHA. Many LA's however hold different views to this.

I am sorry to say that this is an area where different LAs will act in different ways.

My own view is that claimants should be allowed to voluntarily end their own claim, even though there is no clear provision in the regulations that allows this. However, my reading of the LHA regulations is that there will need to be a break in claim of one week before LHA will apply. This is, however , only my view.

I do think it is clear that people who are receiving Rent Allowance will not automatically move on to LHA when their Rent Officer decision is over 52 weeks old. Unless they have a change that moves them on to LHA they will continue under the “old” scheme.

Our HB dept have said that a week's break in the claim will be needed and then they will not stop people from ending their claim and making a new claim. It will all depend on the amount of current shortfall whether it would be worth doing.

What is needed is to establish ways a new claim could legally be made, preferably without costing clients who have been struggling financially to pay what can be quite substantial shortfalls more money and pushing people further into debt.

Why was choice not allowed for when the changes were sold on the grounds of making hb claimants more 'financially responsible'!

I have now spoken to some HB officers who have advised that people may need to break for a month as otherwise it will become a change of circumstances. If someone trys to break for only one week then as there is no change the claim will continue... if people want to change to LHA they will need to break for one month to start a new claim.

Although the HB officers agreed that no cases have tested this yet.

Also it appears that over 60's will be effected by the 52 week backdate rule and therefore may not be able to break their claims.

In regard to rent restrictions I guess people might be able to appeal based on the new LHA figures?

Tue 08-Apr-08 02:37 PM by laura

Although I have not seen any legislation in regard to this so if anyone has any further info I would be grateful.

The regulation is the "new" Regulation 13C of the HB Regs.

The DWP Guidence manual says;

"Claimants will go onto LHA on the earlier of the receipt of
•a new claim
•relevant information regarding a new claim, ie a Customer Management System (CMS) statement – only applicable in local authorities where CMS has gone live
•a notification of an existing claimant changing address
• re-applications where there is a break in the claim of one week or more".

The Regulation itself is not that clear. See below


When a maximum rent (LHA) is to be determined
13C. —(1) A relevant authority shall determine a maximum rent (LHA) in accordance with regulation 13D (determination of a maximum rent (LHA)) in any case where paragraphs (2) or (3) apply.

(2) This paragraph applies where a relevant authority has received—
(a) a claim on which a rent allowance may be awarded, where the date of claim falls on or after 7th April 2008;

(b) relevant information regarding a claim on which a rent allowance may be awarded, where the date of claim falls on or after 7th April 2008;

(c) in relation to an award of housing benefit where the eligible rent was determined without reference to regulation 13A or 13D, a notification of a change of dwelling (as defined in regulation 2) where the change occurs on or after 7th April 2008; or

(d) in relation to an award of housing benefit where a maximum rent (LHA) was determined in accordance with regulation 13D—
(i) notification of a change of a kind which affects the category of dwelling applicable to the claim;

(ii) notification of the death of a linked person, where the notification does not fall within head (i); or

(iii) notification of a change of dwelling.
(3) This paragraph applies on the anniversary of the LHA date.

(4) Where the LHA date is 29th February, the anniversary of the LHA date shall be 28th February.

(5) This regulation does not apply in a case where—
(a) the landlord is a registered social landlord;

(b) paragraph 4(1)(b) of Schedule 3 to the Consequential Provisions Regulations (savings provision) applies;

(c) the tenancy is an excluded tenancy of a type falling within any of paragraphs 4 to 10 of Schedule 2;

(d) the claim or award relates to—
(i) periodical payments of kind falling within regulation 12(1) (rent) which a person is liable to make in relation to a houseboat, caravan or mobile home which he occupies as his home; or

(ii) rent payable in relation to a hostel; or
(e) rent under the tenancy is attributable to board and attendance, and—
(i) the relevant authority has made an application to the rent officer in accordance with regulation 13D(10) (board and attendance determination), regulation 15 (applications to the rent officer for determinations) or regulation 17 (substitute determinations or substitute redeterminations); and

(ii) the rent officer has determined that a substantial part of the rent under the tenancy is fairly attributable to board and attendance and has notified the relevant authority of this in accordance with article 4C, 4D or 4E of the Rent Officers Order.
(6) In this regulation—
"the LHA date" means the date by reference to which the local housing allowance used to determine the maximum rent (LHA) was identified;
"registered social landlord" has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the Housing Act 1996<22> or, in Scotland, sections 57 and 59 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001<23>.

Tue 08-Apr-08 03:57 PM by stainsby

You need to be very careful with your teminolgy her

Termination of an award can only be done by supersession and grounds must be shown. If a claimant wants his award terminated in order to be able to make a fresh claim at some later date, then there must be either a relvant change of circumstances or a qustion must have arisen as to ongoing entitlement.

If the latter is the case, the process will be first suspension,then notification of an information requiriement by the LA, then termination after the information requirement not being met by the claimant.

That process must take at least a month because of the time period to supply information.

Mr Commissioner Mesher held at para 25 CJSA/3979/1999 that "... it seems to me that a withdrawal of a claim for the future (once that is accepted as legally permissible) is a relevant change of circumstances within section 25(1)(b) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, because the basis on which any award of benefit could rest has been removed. "

This seems to run contrary to earleier decisons such as R(S)4/86,R(U)2/79 and R(U)7/83. The Commissioner granted leave to appeal in R(H)2/06 because he considered it arguable that the tribunal ought to have considered whether in the light of CJSA/3979/1999 the withdrawal of the claim following the investigation interview should be treated as a genuine expression of the claimant’s intention to do so, but in the end CJSA/3979/1999 was not material to the outcome.

It will probably take a Tribunal of Commissioners to give the definitve answer as to whether a claimant can simply ask for the award to be withdrawn after a decison has been made on the claim.

Guidance has now been issued on this http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/HB_G10_2008.doc
- if a person indicates unequivocally and freely that they no longer wish to receive benefit, entitlement should cease from that point on
-Once HB claim withdrawn, should be a minimum 7 day period before their benefit could be re-instated as a new claim for LHA.

I have a client who would like to close his HB claim on the Saturday evening and make a new claim under LHA on the monday morning, and would like to know what there is to stop him.

So, and as a matter of interest, what is there in the way of regs etc to support/enforce the 7 day rule, or is this another urban myth at the embryo stage ........? I've seen G10, and I've also seen rulings in the past that have said that guidance is just that, and is not a setting of a rule in concrete......

see also the other thread on this @

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=6582&mesg_id=6582

......that still doesn't answer the question of whether the 7 day rule is backed up by a regulation, or a figure plucked out of the air....one HB Appeals officer I spoke to did have to concede that no such reg exists, but they are going to stick to the 7 day rule at least until someone successfully appeals it...........

As you will see from my earlier posts, I have always held the view that the DWP have now come around to.

The 7 day argument really is this.

1) LHA will be payable where there is a new claim for HB benefit. (See regs in my earlier post)

2) Since the abolition of Benefit periods A new claim is only required after a period of no entitlement.

3) HB is a weekly Benefit (s130 and 130A) so if you are entitled to HB at all in any week, you are treated as entitled for the whole of that week, even if your eligible rent for that week is based on less that 7 days liability.

4) If there must be a period of no entitlement to require a new claim, the minimum period of that no entitlement is a week because of 3 above.

In my opinion, Jeff's analysis is spot on.

As a slightly controversial aside, I'm still less than convinced that any of the authorities cited, so far, allow awards to be withdrawn simply for the purpose of changing to LHA. Very VERY broadly, the authorities appear to envisage that awards are withdrawn on the basis that there is no ongoing entitlement. In the case of changing to LHA, that is patently not the case.

Will the DWP care? Doubt it.

At the counter, we're getting claimants to sign a statement: 'I wish to terminate my claim from dd.mm.yy, I do not wish to receive benefit for the following week.' Then we take a new claim form - from which a new claim will start 1 week from the termination.

Has anyone else had experience of helping existing claimants cancel their claims so that they can re-claim under LHA? Would claimants on income support need to cancel the income support claim or just the housing benefit claim. It would be helpful if there could be some feedback to see if this is working across the country