Lodging Allowance

What Lodging Allowance is

When the Services can’t give you a bed — no suitable single living accommodation and no substitute Service accommodation — Lodging Allowance, or LA, pays you a daily rate to find your own. It’s built from the typical costs of rent, utilities, food, travel and incidentals, so it replaces the separate allowances you’d otherwise claim for those.

It’s normally for detachments of more than 30 days and less than six months. For 30 days or less, Night Subsistence is usually the right allowance instead.

Who can claim

Personnel receiving regular pay — plus FTRS (Full Commitment), FTRS (Limited Commitment) away from their permanent duty station, and MPGS — can claim when:

• they meet the rules for substitute single Service accommodation under JSP 464; and either
• DIO has confirmed in writing that no suitable substitute accommodation is available, or the unit considers it inappropriate; or
• they’re in an appointment that exempts them from single living accommodation and doesn’t require them to live in SFA.

Who can’t claim

• Personnel serving outside the UK, who have allowances like Overseas Rent Allowance instead.
• Anyone ineligible for substitute single accommodation because they own or part-own their home.
• People given permission to live out for personal reasons when single accommodation was available.
• Those away from their unit for more than 61 days on medical leave, or awaiting a permanent assignment.
• University, medical and dental cadets, and Foundation Year 1 and 2 doctors.
• Anyone setting up reciprocal arrangements with others to create an entitlement.
• Claims to live in a property owned by you, your partner, your children or your parents — unless it’s a second home.

How much you get

Your daily rate depends on your rank, whether you’re in London or elsewhere, and which rate type applies. The type reflects the charges you’d pay if you were in single Service accommodation:

• Rate A — you’d be exempt from both food and accommodation charges.
• Rate B — you’d pay the daily food charge but not accommodation charges.
• Rate C — you’d pay both.
• Rates D and E — restricted rates for single personnel living in their own property, or one owned partly by them or their family, where no single accommodation is available.

Rates from 1 August 2026. Restricted Rate D is £20.32 a day in London and £14.26 elsewhere (£14.20 for OR5 and below); Rate E is £14.26. LA is reset each April and uprated each August for inflation. If you’re promoted, the new rate applies from the day you’re paid at the new rank.

Worked examples

Lodging Allowance, Night Subsistence or Service accommodation?

• Service or substitute accommodation always comes first. COs must make the most of publicly funded accommodation before supporting LA.
• Night Subsistence covers short stays — normally up to 30 days — when you’re away from your duty station.
• Lodging Allowance is for longer stays, normally more than 30 days and less than six months, when no suitable Service accommodation can be found. It can run longer if a detachment is unexpectedly extended.

In difficult housing markets, or where the need is short, your CO may decide Night Subsistence is more appropriate.

Help with getting started

• Agent’s fees. Non-refundable letting agent, tenancy and inventory fees can be reimbursed with evidence — once per requirement, or twice if you have to move for reasons outside your control.
• Rent in advance. If your landlord wants a month up front, your CO can authorise an advance of up to one month’s LA, recovered over six months.
• Deposit. A returnable deposit can be advanced in full and is recovered at the end of the tenancy.
• Short-notice moves. If you have to leave at short notice for unforeseen Service reasons, rent indemnity costs can be reimbursed up to one month’s LA.

Rules while you’re on LA

• Your lodgings must meet the standard expected for your rank — no caravans, boats or campsites.
• You don’t pay Service food or accommodation charges, and you can’t claim Home to Duty Travel or other food allowances at the same time.
• Immediate family can stay for no more than 28 nights in any 61-day period.
• If you’re away for up to 61 days, LA continues as long as you keep, pay for and don’t sublet your lodgings.
• Your CO reviews your entitlement every six months. LA shouldn’t normally run beyond three years without approval from DBS.

How to claim

1. As soon as you know Service accommodation can’t be provided, apply to your CO on the form at Annex A to JSP 752 Chapter 5 Section 3.
2. Include DIO’s written confirmation that no suitable accommodation is available, where required.
3. Your CO certifies you meet the criteria and unit HR sets up payment.
4. Report any change of circumstances straight away — status, courses, leave or longer family visits.