Apply for Housing Benefits

If you need help with your housing payments, you should apply for Universal Credit on GOV.UK.

Some people may be entitled to Housing Benefit instead. This includes people who:

• are of state pension age
• live in supported accommodation, for example hostels or sheltered housing
• live in temporary accommodation provided by us

What is Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit helps you pay your rent if you are on a low income. The amount of benefit you get is worked out by looking at:

• how much money you have coming in
• your circumstances and the amount of rent you have to pay
• the amount of savings you have

You cannot get Housing Benefit if:

• you own your own home and pay a mortgage
• have a high income
• have more than £16,000 in savings (unless you claim guaranteed pension credit)

If you think you fit our criteria, use our benefit calculator to see what help you can get. If you rent privately, please check your Local Housing Allowance before using the calculator.

Apply

If you have any problems with completing the online form, please contact us on 01622 602557. If you do not have all the evidence, you can send the form in first and then upload the proof later.

What happens next

We will review your application and the documents you have provided, and we will contact you.

What you will need

We need to see the documents that prove you need the benefit before we can pay you. They can either be originals or copies.

We will need to see:

• National Insurance numbers for you and your partner. Your partner needs to be someone you’re married to or living with as though you’re married.
• identity for you and your partner. For example, a passport or driving licence
• capital, savings and investments, including all bank and building society current and savings accounts
• earnings of everyone living with you, including your partner and anyone else over 18
• if you are self-employed, you will need to complete our earnings form
• any other income
• benefits, allowances or pensions.
• tenancy agreement

If you do not provide the evidence to us within a month, we may not be able to pay you any benefits.

You can send them to us using our online form or by post to:

If you’re having problems gathering your evidence, you can contact us or call 01622 602557.

Appeals

If you're not satisfied with our decision or how we have explained our decision, you can appeal.

You must appeal in writing and send your appeal to:

You need to make it clear which decision you are appealing against and your reasons why. You need to do this within a month of the decision you are appealing against.

We will write to let you know the decision made after receiving your appeal. If you still do not agree with our decision, your appeal will be heard by a tribunal run by the Independent Tribunals Service.

Landlords

Before we speak to a landlord about any benefits, we need the tenant’s permission. We can tell the landlord about the progress of a claim, whether we have made a decision, if we have awarded benefits and when we are sending out any payment. We will not tell any landlord the personal details of a claimant.

What we can tell them if we pay the tenant

We will write to tell the landlord when we start or stop paying them directly. If we pay the landlord, we can tell them the:

• date benefit started and ended
• weekly amount of benefit and how often we pay. If there is a shortfall, it is up to the landlord to collect the rent the tenant owes
• amount we are taking directly from the benefit to recover any overpayments

Direct payment

If the tenant is in arrears by eight weeks or more, landlords can ask for the payments to be made directly. They will need to provide a rent statement proving the tenant is in arrears.

The money will be paid straight into their bank account every four weeks in arrears. If they have several tenants on benefit, we will combine all the payments into one.