Housing allowance – rent apportionment

[Harts]

We have a resident applying for housing benefit and the local authority wants to know the ‘rent’ apportionment of the maintenance payment. We are unable to separate this as it is all inclusive of repairs heating etc. Has anyone been requested to provide this and if so how did you deal with it?

[Clare Heyes]

It is all “rental” element. It is because we call it wmc that the numpties don’t understand! If you don’t have a service charge element for heating for example, then 100% is rent.

[Sue Missin]

Ideally you should have a separate element of the WMC for service charge elements.The combination of service charge and housing costs are the WMC. There was a seminar provided last year on the importance of setting up service charge and it identified that some elements that can be included in a service charge may not be eligible for housing benefit
An added advantage to the service charges is that it provides and further opportunity to clearly demonstrate engagement with residents when holding an annual meeting for the service charge review and consulting on the various elements of the service charge and how as the landlord you are trying to obtain value for money in agreeing the contracts for the work whilst accurately accounting for the costs to maintain the services

[Clare Heyes]

However, a lot of Almshouses charities don’t have service charges as they are individual units, paying for their own utilities, looking after their own gardens and not having lifts or other communal items that could come under a service charge. I look after 24 charities and about half have no service charges.

[clerk@salisburyalmshouses.co.uk]

We have a separate Maintenance Charge (eligible for Housing Benefit), and a Support Charge and a Heating & Hot Water charge.

Salisbury City Almshouse & Welfare Charities

[Debbie Beck]

we have been advised by the local authority that the heating element can now be included in housing benefit as long as it doesn’t exceed the local housing allowance.

[Tina LL]

This year we gave the local council a copy of our budget breaking down the charges we are claiming.

We have been able to claim for communal heating/ lighting, communal fire safety, caretaking and gardening. this is on top of our wmcs.

[MaryCobbett]

If your WMC is below the Local Housing Allowance will cover many charges such as heating and hot water that are normally excluded from housing benefit.

35b
If the claimant’s housing benefit is calculated under the local housing allowance (LHA) rules, the local authority does not deduct any service charges. This is because the rent officer has already taken service charges into account in arriving at the local housing allowance figure. The claimant’s eligible rent for housing benefit is the appropriate LHA figure or the actual rent paid if lower, even if the actual rent contains service charges that would normally be ineligible for housing benefit.

There are some exceptions depending on the status of the Almshouse association ie if they are registered housing associations but generally this regulation holds in the majority of cases

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