The Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Costs (Executive Determinations) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021 - screening

The Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Costs (Executive Determinations) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020 No. 14) set out how the Northern Ireland Housing Executive should calculate Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates from April 2020, and these were to be set at the lower of:

• The 30th percentile of local rents;
• The previous LHA rate uprated by 1.7%; or
• The maximum local housing allowance (national cap).

However, as the Coronavirus pandemic began to take hold, the Department made the Social Security (Coronavirus) (Further Measures) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020 No. 53) which aimed to provide increased support to renters for the fiscal year 2020-21 by increasing LHA rates (including Shared Accommodation Rates) for private renters claiming the Universal Credit Housing Costs Element or Housing Benefit, to the 30th percentile. Rates were set in line with the 30th percentile of market rents in a local area for each bedroom size up to a maximum of four bedrooms