If you are a council tenant you may receive housing benefit on what is called the eligible rent. Housing benefit does not cover things like the home insurance scheme operated by the council or lock-up costs even though these may be included in your rent charge.

If you rent from a private landlord, the maximum amount of housing benefit you can receive will be set in advance by the rent officer. This amount is based on local housing allowance (LHA) legislation. It will not depend on the amount of rent you pay or the property size, but on the number of bedrooms your household needs. Please note that when new claims are being processed we are now going to check if the landlord is registered and advise the Scottish Landlord Register if they are not.

The same amount will be paid to every equivalent sized household in the area in which you live, regardless of differences in actual rent.

There is a special rule that applies to tenants of private landlords who are under 35 and single. This restricts the maximum rent that we can pay.