benefit or not, as long as the rent is paid on time. Local Housing Allowance is designed to ensure that landlords do not have a reason to discriminate against tenants on Housing Benefit, as in most cases there will be no need for a landlord to know that the tenant is on Housing Benefit, and the tenant can know in advance if rent will be met in full. Some landlord organisations have raised concerns about Local Housing Allowance as they believe it has made rents more difficult to collect from those on Housing Benefit. Appeals The Housing Benefit (Decision and Appeals) Regulations 2001 state that any 'person affected' by a relevant decision can ask the council to revise its decision (Look at the decision again). It also states that a person affected can appeal against the decision of a Local Authority to an independent appeal tribunal (the First-tier Tribunal) within one calendar month. This means that every time a decision is made about Housing benefit a Decision notice must be sent, notifying the 'person affected' of the amount of Housing and Council Tax Benefit awarded, overpayments/underpayments, and terminations. Discretionary housing payments Discretionary housing payments are available to those who need further help to meet their Housing costs. To be eligible to claim for a DHP one must qualify for Housing or Council Tax Benefit (at any rate). The funds for DHPs are cash limited. The DWP publishes how much is available to for DHP funding to Local Authorities each year. Changes to housing benefit in 2011 In the spending review of 20 October 2010 George Osborne announced a series of changes to housing benefit. From April 2011 claimants will only be able to claim a rent based on the 30th percentile of rent in their area (previously 50th percentile). The age at which most single people can claim for a self-contained one bedroom flat (rather than the shared room rate) was increased to 35 years. Exceptions to this apply to some groups, including care leavers aged under 22, some people who have a disability and over 25s who have spent at least three months living in hostel accommodation, subject to meeting further conditions. The maximum payable under LHA was also set to £400 per week, or £20,800 per annum. These changes will mean significantly lower amounts of benefit will be paid, especially in Central London. Transitional protection will apply to