Local Housing Allowance Rates

The rates for Local Housing Allowance in Oxford can be found below.

Before using this you need to work out how many rooms you are entitled to claim benefit for. Visit the Working Out Your LHA page for more details.

All Local Housing Allowance claimed by people living in the Oxford area will be based on these rates. A new set of rates will be available next year. 

Once you have claimed, your benefit will be based on the same rate for up to a year.

Changes to Calculation for Large Families

Changes have been made to the way Housing Benefit under Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is calculated for large families. From April 2011, Local Housing Allowance rates are restricted to that of a four bedroom property

What are the changes?

New claimants who make a claim for Housing Benefit on or after 1 April 2011 for a house consisting of five or more bedrooms, will only be entitled to an LHA rate of four bedrooms.

Existing claimants already in receipt of the LHA rate for five bedrooms will continue to receive that until their claim is reviewed (usually at the anniversary date of their claim), after which their claim will be re-assessed according to the four bedroom LHA rate for their area. In some cases, the person may be entitled to transitional protection. For more information please visit our Changes to Housing Benefit from April 2011 page.

How does the capping of LHA rates to four bedrooms affect landlords?

If the claimant lives in a house with 5 or more bed rooms the Housing Benefit will be based on the LHA rate for a four bedroom property.

Payment of Housing Benefit can be made direct to the landlord if we (the Local Authority), considers it may help the customer to secure an existing or new tenancy.

Visit our Landlord's Information on Housing Benefit page for more information.

Page last reviewed 17 April 2012