General Housing & Council Tax Benefit Information.
What are Housing & Council Tax Benefits?
Housing Benefit is available to help you to pay
your rent if you are on a low income. If you pay rent to a housing
association or private landlord, the benefit is called rent
allowance. Payments may be sent either to you or direct to your
landlord.
Council Tax Benefit may be claimed by the
person responsible for payment of the Council Tax for your
accommodation. Your Council Tax bill will be reduced by the amount
of benefit due to you.
If you have other adults living with you, who
do not pay you rent, you may be entitled to second adult rebate.
This is an alternative to Council Tax Benefit, and is worked out
using the income of all other adults in the property.
Housing & Council Tax Benefit are
means tested benefits, administered by the Council on behalf of the
Department of Work & Pensions (DWP). These
Benefits assist claimants on low-incomes with payment of
their rent and Council Tax.
Note: Housing Benefit cannot
assist with deposits or rent paid in advance.
Low-income means people on Income Support/Job
Seekers Allowance, low earnings, state benefits, retirement
pensions etc.
Who Can Claim?
You can claim Benefit if you have a liability
to pay rent or Council Tax. Complete the online
benefits calculator for an estimate of the amount of
benefit available to you.
How To Claim
There is no automatic entitlement to Benefit, an application
form along with supporting evidence must be
submitted. Download the application
forms from further down the page, or collect one at all
Council Offices or DWP.
Supporting Evidence
Required
There are a number of documents that must be
provided in support of a benefit application to allow a Claimant's
benefit entitlement to be determined. All of these documents
must be original.
Proof Of Identity and National Insurance Number
Claimants must provide evidence of identity and National
Insurance Number for themselves and their partner. A leaflet
listing some of the documents that are acceptable is available
from the downloadable
documents section at the bottom of this page.
Proof Of Income
If you are employed, you are required to provide 5 wage slips if
you are paid weekly, 2 wage slips if you are paid monthly
or 3 wage slips if you are paid fortnightly. If you do not
have wage slips, an official letter from your employer may be
acceptable. The letter should include the following
information:
- The full name & address of your employer.
- The number of hours worked and the period covered.
- Gross income for the period and year to date.
- Income Tax deducted.
- National Insurance Contributions deducted.
- Details of Occupational Pension or Personal
Pension payments.
- Method Of Payment (e.g. Cheque, cash, BACS etc)
Alternatively we can send a 'Certificate Of Earned
Income' directly to your employer. This form requests
all the relevant earnings details that we
require.
Proof of savings/capital
To establish your savings/capital, we will need to see your last
2 months bank statement or the up to date pass books for each
account that you hold, as well as details of any other investments
you may have, for example; stocks & shares, PEPs, ISAs, Premium
Bonds, National Savings Certificates, land or property etc.
Proof of rent
If you rent your home and wish to claim Housing Benefit, you
will need to provide up to date proof of your rent. This is usually
your tenancy agreement & rent book or a signed and dated letter
from your landlord confirming the following:
- The full name & address of your landlord and managing
agent.
- Your tenancy start date and the term of the tenancy.
- The amount of rent payable.
- The frequency at which the rent is to be paid.
- Details of any services included in the rent (e.g meals,
heating, lighting, hot water etc).
- Details of any payments that have already been made (amounts
and dates of the payments)
The application form states what supporting evidence is required
to allow the Council to process a claim. These documents must
be original, photocopies will not be accepted.
If a claimant cannot provide evidence straightaway they should
send in the form and submit the evidence later.
Official receipts will be given for claims
accepted at Allerdale House, if requested.
When To Claim
Housing & Council Tax Benefit are normally
only paid from the Monday following the receipt of an application
form so if you think that you may be entitled, it is important
that you claim straight away as benefit can only be backdated if
you can show that you had 'good cause' for not
claiming earlier.
Benefit can only be paid where the claimant is
actually occupying the premises. New tenants should make sure their
claim is submitted the day they move in or their benefit will only
start from the Monday after they claim. Existing tenants should
claim as soon as possible as their entitlement will start from the
Monday after they claim.
When Does Entitlement End?
Benefit is paid indefinitely until a person has
a change in their circumstances which means their claim has to be
cancelled, for example, they move from Job Seekers Allowance
into employment and are awarded an Extended Payment
or they move out of the area.
Changes Of
Circumstance
It is important that all changes of
circumstance are reported to the Council within 1
calendar month of the change occurring. If the change is
advantageous to the claimant, delaying in notifying the council may
result in loss of benefit. If the change is likely to be
detrimental to the claimant's benefit entitlement (e.g. their wages
have increased) an overpayment may occur if the Council is not
notified immediately.
Note: Failure to report any
changes that may result in a decrease in the amount of benefit
awarded may lead to prosecution.
Will You Qualify?
Whether you qualify for help depends on:
- Your income
- Your savings
- The size of your family
- The income of anyone else who lives with you,
(such as grown up children or parents).
Generally speaking, people in receipt of Income
Support, Job Seekers Allowance (income Based) of Pension Credit
(Guaranteed Element) will qualify for maximum benefit, subject to
Non-Dependant deductions and restrictions to the eligible
rent.
For further information on how Housing & Council Tax Benefits
are calculated go to
'How Housing &
Council Tax Benefits are calculated and paid'.