How to use the Local Housing Allowance communications toolkit

Background

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is a new way of working out claims for Housing Benefit (HB) for tenants living in private rented accommodation, including tenants already getting HB who move into accommodation rented from a private landlord. It is being introduced in England, Scotland and Wales on 7 April 2008.

LHA introduces some significant changes to how HB is worked out and it is important that any tenants making a claim for help with their rent know how these changes may affect them.

The aims of LHA are fairness, choice, transparency, simplicity and personal responsibility. To enable tenants to make the most of these reforms, they need to be aware of how the scheme operates and what they can expect from the system.

Audience

The audiences for LHA communications include:

• tenants in the private rented sector claiming HB for the first time
• tenants in the private sector changing address
• tenants in the private rented sector renewing a claim for HB
• tenants in the private rented sector already getting HB
• tenants in the social sector getting HB
• landlords
• welfare rights advisers

The first group (tenants claiming HB for the first time) cannot be identified and there are no products we can offer specifically to help with the introduction to LHA. However, a new edition of the leaflet GL16 Help with your rent should be available from April 2008 and this will explain LHA.

Tenants who are already getting HB need to know about the changes to HB even if the reforms do not affect them immediately, as it may affect them in the future. In addition, they may hear about LHA through other sources and providing them with the correct information at the start may alleviate any concerns they have.

Tenants in the social sector already getting HB also need to know about the changes in case they move to accommodation in the private sector.

Landlords will need to be informed about the changes as they may be affected by the changes to how benefit is paid (i.e. tenants can no longer elect to have benefit paid to their landlord). This will also give the opportunity to offer reassurance about the available safeguards in respect of tenants who have problems paying their rent.

Many customers get advice about housing issues from welfare rights organisations such as Citizens Advice. DWP is providing information about the LHA reforms to welfare rights organisations nationally, but providing information to the local outlets is a good way of ensuring customers get appropriate advice.

Communications process

Our experience is that the ideal way to communicate with tenants, and other interested parties (e.g. landlords, welfare rights advisers), about LHA, or HB, is to talk to them face-to-face. This means that their needs and concerns can be addressed.

However, communicating in this way is not always practical, and sometimes this would need to be supported with something for the person to take away. Because of this, DWP has developed a number of leaflets and letters to be used with tenants, and with other people who may be affected by the changes to HB.

DWP has commissioned research to test these products with tenants, landlords and welfare rights organisations, as well as local authority staff, to ensure they are effective. The research showed that respondents felt that they would need some help other than leaflets to understand the effect of LHA on HB. This was because of the complexity of some aspects of the LHA reforms (e.g. the £15 cap). In view of this, we strongly recommend that you talk to customers and stakeholders about the effect of the LHA reforms, as well as using the leaflets.

A list of the leaflets and letters is at Annex A.

Using the leaflets and letters

The leaflets and letters contain text only and are provided in rich text format (and so should be compatible with any word processing package). They are provided as a guide to good practice and you can choose to use some or all of them as your local needs demand. They should be formatted with your local branding and relevant contact details should be added. Some leaflets have spaces for other local information as well.

We recommend that the use of the leaflets and letters should be supported by other local activity, particularly for landlords and advisers. This should be through your usual channels and you may consider holding seminars to give the chance to debate the issues. Our research also showed that landlords and welfare rights advisers would also like to have access to more detailed information on local authority websites.

You will notice that throughout the letters and leaflets we refer to Local Housing Allowance and not to LHA. This is because our research showed that referring to LHA confused customers and they much preferred the use of Local Housing Allowance.

Banking

Housing Benefit calculated using the LHA rates is paid to the tenant in most cases (and they cannot elect to have it paid direct to their landlord), and usually in the form of a bank transfer or, exceptionally, a cheque. In view of this, we strongly recommend that tenants have a bank account. This not only promotes financial inclusivity but is also more secure than providing giros.

However, some tenants do not have bank accounts and some may find opening one difficult. The LHA communications toolkit does not include any products that promote bank accounts, or detail how to open one. This is because there is a range of leaflets available from the Financial Services Authority (the leaflets have been developed in conjunction with DWP) which provide this information. These can be found at http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/tools/publications.html

Pathfinder/2WG authorities

For the local authorities already operating LHA (in the Pathfinder and 2WG areas), there are some additional products. These products are designed to be used with customers who are already getting HB based on LHA rates, or third parties who are already affected (e.g. a landlord renting to a tenant whose HB is based on LHA rates).

From 7 April 2008, due to the changes made to LHA for national rollout, the Pathfinder/2WG authorities will need to use the general LHA products.

Other formats

We have also produced versions of all the products in Welsh for use in Wales. These will be supplied to Welsh authorities shortly.

You may also wish to produce copies of the material in other languages or alternative formats to address local need. We have not supplied any products for this purpose – you know best what the needs of your local community are.

Timing your communications

We recommend that you send a copy of the letter (HB(LHA)14) and the introductory leaflet (HB(LHA)1) to all tenants in private rented accommodation who are getting HB. This should take place four to eight weeks before LHA starts.

We also recommend that you send a copy of the relevant letters (HB(LHA)16 for landlords and HB(LHA)17 for welfare rights advisers) a few weeks before this. The letter to landlords should include a copy of HB(LHA)4, which is the leaflet for landlords explaining how LHA may affect them. The letter to welfare rights advisers should include the introduction to LHA (HB(LHA)1).

The remaining leaflets give further details about LHA, including how to work out which rate will be used to calculate their benefit. These are detailed in the table in Annex A. These are for use directly with tenants and can be made available in your caller offices (you may decide to use some of these rather than the GL16). We also recommend that a full range of information is made available on your website.