How do I claim Housing Benefit?

How to claim Housing Benefit and/or the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme

You must fill in a claim form to get Housing Benefit and / or Council Tax Reduction Scheme You can use the same form to claim both Housing and Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

If you live with a partner you should make one claim for both of you. If one of you is a student then the non student should fill in the claim form putting the student down as the partner.

You must return the form to us straight away, otherwise you may lose benefit / reduction. You can send any evidence/proof we need later, but you only have a limited time for this, we will tell you how long.

You can claim benefit / reduction by either:

Filling in our claim form.

• This can be printed here
• You can collect the form from the Contact Centre at the Civic Centre
• We can post a form to you

Contacting us

You can get help filling in the claim form at the Customer Contact Centre at the Civic Centre, please complete as much of the form as you can before bringing it in.

If you are making a claim for Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance or Employment & Support Allowance (ESA), you can claim Housing Benefit at The Job Centre. You will not be able to claim a Council Tax Reduction and should approach the council direct as from 1 April 2013 to make a claim under the Council Tax Reduction Scheme that replaces Council Tax Benefit as from that date.

You can ask our Visiting Officer to visit you if you are elderly, unwell, disabled or unable to leave the house; or

You can get independent help and advice from various Advice Agencies.

The claim form is quite long as we have to ask a lot of questions. This is to make sure we have the right information to give you the correct benefit entitlement.