Research and analysis

Local Housing Allowance: monitoring the impact of changes

These are the final reports evaluating the changes to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) system of Housing Benefit (HB) from April 2011.

• From: Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 15 July 2014
• Last updated: 15 July 2015 — See all updates

Documents

The impact of recent reforms to Local Housing Allowances: summary of key findings

Ref: ISBN 978 1 910219 31 7, RR874

PDF, 1.11 MB, 59 pages

Monitoring the impact of recent measures affecting Housing Benefit and Local Housing Allowances in the private rented sector: the response of landlords

Ref: ISBN 978 1 910219 26 3, RR870

PDF, 1.3 MB, 155 pages

Econometric analysis of the impacts of Local Housing Allowance reforms on existing claimants

Ref: ISBN 978 1 910219 28 7, RR871

PDF, 1.03 MB, 61 pages

The impact of changes to the Local Housing Allowance in the private rented sector: the response of tenants

Ref: ISBN 978 1 910219 29 4, RR872

PDF, 978 KB, 160 pages

The impact of recent reforms to Local Housing Allowances: differences by place

Ref: ISBN 978 1 910219 30 0, RR873

PDF, 3 MB, 103 pages

Summary of all reports: Monitoring the impact of changes to the Local Housing Allowance system of Housing Benefit

PDF, 249 KB, 6 pages

Details

These are the final reports of DWP’s independent review evaluating the impact of changes to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) system of Housing Benefit (HB). The changes were introduced from April 2011.

We have published a summary report and 4 technical reports containing findings from a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research:

• a follow-up survey and interviews with landlords and focus groups with housing and benefits advisers
• an econometric analysis of administrative data on HB claims assessed under the LHA rules to estimate the impact of the changes on existing HB claimants assessed under those rules
• a follow-up survey and interviews with affected claimants
• an analysis of the impact of the LHA changes on HB claims at local authority district level between January 2010 and August 2013

We published an early findings report of this evaluation in June 2012 and an interim report in May 2013.

Authors: Christina Beatty, Ian Cole, Ryan Powell, Peter Kemp, Mike Brewer, James Browne, Carl Emmerson, Andrew Hood, Robert Joyce

Published 15 July 2014
Last updated 15 July 2015 + show all updates

1. 15 July 2015

   Updated table on page 46 of 'Econometric analysis of the impacts of Local Housing Allowance reforms on existing claimants'. This corrects estimates of the effects of LHA reforms on people likely to be affected by a changes in the scope of the 'shared accommodation rate'.

2. 15 July 2014

   First published.