Almost half of private renters who receive housing benefits are to experience a shortfall between the support they receive from government and their monthly rents according to the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA).

The most recent official data reveals how 48% of these private tenants receiving LHA will suffer if the government freezes LHA rates for the duration of this Parliament in April, it will pull 50,000 renters into poverty, 60,000 will be pushed into deep poverty and 80,000 will be pushed into very deep poverty. 

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the NRLA, said: “It beggars belief that ministers are making it harder for those reliant on housing benefits to sustain their tenancies, especially in an already fiercely competitive rental market. 

“Tenants shouldn’t be expected to endure the uncertainty of not knowing what support they can access from one year to the next. It is time to end the insecurity they face and unfreeze housing benefit rates.”  

Figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies indicated that the last time LHA rates were frozen in 2023, only 5% of rental properties were affordable to those claimants in receipt of LHA.