Another charity wants the government to unfreeze Local Housing Allowance for private tenants on benefits.

A million private renters in Britain who rely on housing benefit face “a punishing shortfall” between the amount of housing benefit they receive and the cost of rent, Citizens Advice says. 

Housing benefit is delivered as part of Universal Credit to support lowest income renters. 

Housing benefit was designed to be linked to the cheapest 30% of rents in a local area, set by the Local Housing Allowance, and uprated each year. 

But it has been frozen for the best part of a decade, leaving low-income private renters with insufficient support at the mercy of the rental market. 

Local Housing Allowance was last uprated in April 2024, using rental data from September 2023. 

Since then, the charity claims rents have risen an average of 18% in England and 20% in Wales, meaning housing benefit is now significantly out of step with rents. 

For comparison, rents increased by just 4% in England and 6% in Wales between September 2016 and July 2019. 

The charity warns that the freeze on housing benefit during this volatile period has left people desperately exposed to soaring rents, leaving them with no options but to cut back and forgo essentials. 

It calls on the government to act in next week’s Budget to rectify the situation.

Last week the Independent Age charity made similar arguments for the LHA to be unfrozen.