Monitoring the impact of recent measures affecting Housing Benefit and Local Housing Allowances in the private rented sector in Northern Ireland: Final Report

This report is the final evaluation of the recent changes to Local Housing Allowances (LHAs) and Housing Benefit (HB) in the private rented sector (PRS) in Northern Ireland. This report is based on primary research with landlords, claimants and housing advisers undertaken in three local housing markets in the province - Armagh, Greater Shankill and West Belfast. An initial report was published in 2012 on the first wave of this research. This report focuses on the second wave of surveys and interviews and discusses the longitudinal changes in the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of landlords, claimants and housing advisers. When the second wave research was undertaken the LHA measures had only just started to affect all claimants, so the research cannot be taken as the conclusive statement on the effects of the measures, but it can provide insights into the initial impacts on the attitudes and behaviour of the research participants in the three areas.