A total of 900,000 people across the UK could see their housing benefits increase from April after the government announced that it is lifting the four-year freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates.
In a statement to the House of Commons today, Will Quince, minister of welfare delivery, revealed that the government would be submitting a bill to parliament legislating that after the 1st April rates will be raised in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate, which is around 1.5%.
The government has said that the end to the freeze will impact 900,000 claimants and will see the amount of housing benefit received by claimants rise by £10 per month on average.
The move comes after the government announced in November that it would be ending the freeze to the majority of working-age benefits and increasing these in line with CPI. These included for those claimants on Universal Credit and other legacy benefits such Jobseeker's Allowance and child benefit.
However, any action to unfreeze LHA rates was not mentioned as part of these changes.
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