Page content section :
Benefits
Housing Benefit
- Who can claim?
- Making a claim - including benefits calculator
- On-line forms
- Help us to prevent fraud
Who can claim?
If you are on a low income and you have to pay rent, you may be able to get Housing Benefit.
You could :
- Be single or have a partner
- Have children or live alone
- Be working, unemployed or retired
- Get help whether or not you are receiving a state benefit, such as Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance or Pension Credit.
You can claim Housing Benefit if you rent from the Council, a Housing Association or a private landlord, and the type of accommodation you could be renting includes houseboats and mobile homes. You cannot usually get Housing Benefit if you live in a close relative’s household and you cannot get Housing Benefit if you own your home or to help with mortgage payments.
In order to work out your Housing Benefit, the Council will look at :
- Money that you and your partner (if you have one) have coming in, including earnings, some benefits, tax credits and other income, such as occupational pensions, maintenance, etc.
- Your savings and your partner’s savings
- Your household circumstances, such as your age, the ages and size of your family, whether you or any of your family are disabled and whether any other adult lives with you, such as a grown up son or daughter
- The amount of rent you pay for your home.
Unless you are aged 60 or over and receive the guarantee credit of Pension Credit, you will not normally qualify if you have savings over £16,000.
If you are renting from a private landlord, we will ask the Rent Service to tell us whether your rent is reasonable. The Rent Service will compare your rent with average rents for other properties in the same area. If your rent is higher than the average, or your home is bigger than your family is assessed as needing, we will calculate your benefit using a lower figure. If you are planning to rent from a private landlord you can find out how much rent will be used to work out your Housing Benefit before you decide to rent the property. You can do this by filling in a Pre-Tenancy Determination form which you can get from one of our local offices or from The Rent Service website (www.therentservice.gov.uk/advice-guidance/housing-benefit.asp) (leaflets and form are available on The Rent Service website).
However, the rules for people renting from a private landlord are changing soon. Local Housing Allowance is a new way of working out and paying Housing Benefit. It is being introduced from 7th April 2008. For more information please look at Local Housing Allowance.
Making a claim
In order to claim housing benefit, you must complete a claim form and supply all of the supporting documents requested in the form.
You will need to provide evidence of your identity, including confirmation of your National Insurance number. You will also need to supply confirmation of all of your income and capital, as well as your tenancy agreement and proof of your rent payments. We will need to see original documents, not copies. These requirements would also apply for your partner, if you have one. The claim form gives more details about the evidence we require.
The authority can only make a decision once all of this information is received.
Do not delay, as you may lose money.
You can get more information or a claim form by :
- Visiting the Civic Centre between 8:30am and 5:30pm (Mondays to Thursdays) and between 8:30am and 5:00pm on Fridays.
- Telephoning us on (01273) 263444
- Sending benefits an e-mail
We will also be putting in place an electronic claim form soon. In the meantime, you can use the PDF form on the Department for Work and Pensions website (www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/housing_benefit.asp#download).
Benefits calculator
You can use our on-line benefits calculator to give you an indication of the amount of benefit you could get. Only use this as a guide. The rules for benefits mean that your individual circumstances may affect the amount you get.
On-line forms :
- Change of circumstances for pension credit cases (CC1)
- Change of circumstances for non-pension credit cases (CC2)
- Change of circumstances for landlords (CC3)
- Change of circumstances for working age cases (HB3)
- Landlord's statement - housing benefit (HB4)
- Payment of housing benefit direct to your landlord (HB5)
- Self employed earnings
- Employer's certificate of earnings (HB2)
Help us to prevent fraud
It is our policy to prevent and deter Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit fraud and prosecute those who abuse the system.
If you suspect someone is perpetrating Benefit fraud you can report your suspicions in confidence by :
- Telephoning (01273) 263184 and leaving a message
- Visiting the Civic Centre and speaking to one of our investigators
- Sending an e-mail to benefits fraud at Adur
- You
can also use our on-line form to report benefit fraud
(requires Adobe Acrobat)
For more information, please go to the benefit fraud webpage.
Note : This information is for guidance only. It is not meant to say exactly what your legal rights are. While we have tried to make sure that the information is correct as at 19th December 2007, it is possible that there may be incorrect information or some ideas may be oversimplified. Also, please remember that the information is likely to become less accurate over time because of changes to the law.
