Questions about transitional protection under LHA

Would appreciate some help on this:

My client’s HB renewal date is September 2011, so they should receive transitional protection for a further nine months until June 2012.. However, the rent was restricted last September but the LHA has increased since then. The rent has also increased since then.  So in September 2011, will benefit remain the same (which I suspect it will) or is there any possibility that it will increase inline with the higher LHA rate - if so, would it be the LHA rate for March 2011 or September 2011?

Secondly, I note that transitional protection stops if the bedroom entitlement reduces but not if it increases. In this case it would be a student daughter moving back home, so entitlement should increase.  However, this could change the renewal date and consequently, the dates of the transitional protection period. Could anyone explain how this might change the transitional protection period if the student daughter moved back home before Sept 2011 (the renewal date) or between September 2011 and June 2012?

The transitional protection is there to stop the amount of benefit going down (not including the £15 top up).
So in September the eligible rent will be looked at again on the lower of the new rent and the September rate of LHA.
If the eligible rent goes down because of this the transitional protection will apply.
If it stays the same or goes up no transitional protection applies as claimant is better off than before. you did say that the LHA rate is now higher than last september.

The daughter moving back in should make the claimant better off as I assume that her moving in will increase the room rate.

Nicola: thanks for the phone call.

I did not consider the weekly HB cap that applies in this case. I will need to look this one up as i am unsure of an answer.

Thanks for your help - much appreciated