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Who can claim Housing Benefit? |
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Anyone who has to pay rent can claim housing benefit. They may:
- Have a partner, or be single
- Be a pensioner
- Be employed or self-employed
- Get other Social Security benefits
But:
- People with more than £16,000 will not get housing benefit, even if their income is low.
- Full time students cannot claim housing benefit unless they are:
Pensioners, lone parents, disabled, getting Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance Income Based – known as JSA (IB) or they have a partner and have dependant children, or are responsible for a child boarded out with them.
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| Q |
How do I claim? |
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You can claim Housing Benefit at any time, in one of these ways:- - When you claim either Income Support, or Job Seekers Allowance (Income Based), the Benefits Agency will give you a Housing/Council Tax Benefit application form (Form HCTB1). You must complete this and return it to the Benefits Agency, who will then pass it on to us.
- When you claim Pension Credit, the Pension Service will give you a Form HCTB1. You must fill this form in and return it to the Council.
If you don’t get Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance (Income Based) or Pension Credit you can claim by:- contacting us by telephone on 0845 8 504 504, visiting our reception on the ground floor at Civic Centre, Castleford
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| Q |
When do I claim? |
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Claim housing benefit as soon as you think you need help with your rent. Benefit is usually payable from the Monday after the date we got your claim form. We cannot normally backdate claims. If you know your circumstances are going to change – possibly your income will be going down or you will be taking on a new tenancy soon – you can claim up to 13 weeks before you need help.
If you move home, it is important that you claim benefit within the first week of your tenancy starting. We cannot usually pay benefit until you are living in your new home.
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| Q |
How do we work out Housing Benefit? |
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The benefit application form you fill in asks all the questions we need answered to work out if you qualify for benefit. How much benefit you get depends on:- - your savings, money you have coming in,
money the Government thinks you need to live on, the rent you pay any other adult who may live in your home. If you have a partner, we must also take account of their personal details.
Savings
If you and your partner have combined savings of more than £16,000 you will not get benefit, unless you are getting Guarantee Credit. If you and your partner are under 60 and have savings of £6,000 or less, we will ignore them in working out your benefit. For every £250 savings you have above £6,000, the rules say we must add £1 on to your weekly income. For example, if you have £6,500 savings, we add £2 onto your weekly income. If you or your partner are 60 or over and have savings of £6,000 or less we will ignore them in working out your benefit. For every £500 savings you have above £6,000, the rules say we must add £1 onto your weekly income. For example, if you have £6,500 savings, we add £1 onto your weekly income. We ignore any actual interest your savings earn. How much benefit you may get can be affected if you have dependant children who have savings of more than £3,000.
How much money you have coming in
The money you and your family have coming in may be earnings or unearned income, such as social security benefits, tax credits, savings credit or pensions from work. We can ignore certain parts of your income, such as Disability Living Allowance or War Pensions. But, you must still tell us about them.
How much money you need to live on
Parliament sets the minimum level of income you must have after paying your rent. This is called your Applicable Amount. Your applicable amount is made up of Personal Allowances and Premiums. Personal Allowances depend on:- - your age
- whether you are single or have a partner
- how many dependant children you have an their age
Premiums recognise that some people have special or extra needs, such as:-- families
- people with a disability
- one parent families and
- carers – people who look after sick and disabled people
We add the personal allowances and premiums together to give the amount of money the Government considers you need to live on. We cannot alter them.
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| Q |
When will I be paid? |
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The Council aims to pay your claim as quickly as possible. However we can pay claims quicker depending on:- - how quickly you send in ther information
- how busy we are when you make your claim
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| Q |
When does my benefit start? |
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Your benefit usually starts from the Monday after we get your claim form. You can only ask for a backdate of benefits if there is a reason why you were unable to apply for your benefit earlier. If you disagree with the date your claim starts from for any other reason you can appeal against the decision. Our special leaflet If you think our decision is wrong tells you more. You can get this from your local Customer Service Access Point or from the Housing and Council Tax Benefit Service. Alternatively, if you wish to use an appeal form, please visit the Benefits Appeal page In order for a backdate of Council Tax Benefit to be allowed you will have to show 'good cause' why you did not apply earlier. There is no formal definition of 'good cause', each case will be decided according to its own individual situation. There are no formal time limits on making a backdate request, but the maximum period that a benefit claim can be backdated is 52 weeks from the date we receive the backdate request. To do this you must write a letter to:- Housing and Council Tax Benefits Service
Ground Floor,
Civic Centre,
Ferrybridge Road,
Castleford
WF10 4JH
Your letter should include:- - the date you think your benefit should start
- your reasons for not claiming earlier
Please note:-
You can only claim backdated benefit for up to 52 weeks prior to the date of your request. Continuous good cause must be shown for your failure to claim
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| Q |
What happens when a backdated claim is made. |
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Your claim will be considered by a Benefits Officer. The more information and evidence you give in support of your claim the quicker a decision can be made. Sometimes it may be necessary to write to you for more information or to ask you to come in for an informal interview. Your claim will be looked at and you will be sent a letter telling you of our decision. If we have decided that you have not shown "good cause" and that we cannot backdate your claim, the reasons for this will be explained in our letter. You will then have the right of appeal against our decision not to backdate your claim. Our special leaflet If you think our decision is wrong tells you more. You can get this from your local Customer Service Access Point or from the Housing and Council Tax Benefit Service. Alternatively, if you wish to use an appeal form please visit the Benefits Appeal page.
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| Q |
What about private tenants? |
| A |
The rules for private tenants are complicated and have changed from 7 April 2008. If you make a claim for Housing Benefit or if you move home or have a break in your claim for one week or more after 7 April 2008 then we will work out the maximum amount of Housing Benefit you could get using Local Housing Allowance. For more information about Local Housing Allowance please see 'Downloads'. For private tenants for who Local Housing Allowance does not apply then the Government's aim is that housing benefit should only help with rents that are not above average for the area. Usually we can only allow help with rent levels that are not above the average private rents for the District. There are special rules for single people aged under 25. Only rent levels that are at a level for a room in a shared house will get help. So we can work our your "Net Rent" that will be eligible for help, we have to ask the Rent Officer Service to tell us:. - If your rent is high
- What the average rent is for the District
- If you are under 25, what a single room rent would be.
We then use this information to work out your housing benefit. If the rent we have used is less than your rent, you must make up the difference to your landlord from your own income. For more information about this please see the leaflet Thinking of renting private accommodation in 'Downloads' or contact us.
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| Q |
What do you pay? |
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If you get Income Support, JSA (IB) or Guarantee Credit, we help with your net rent, less any deduction for other adults living with you. If you don't get Income Support, JSA (IB) or Guarantee Credit, we compare your weekly income against your applicable amount:- if your income is less than your applicable amount, we help with all your net rent, less any deduction for other adults living with you. if your income is more than your applicable amount, the help we give with your net rent (less any deduction for other adults) goes down on a sliding scale of 65p for each £1 difference.
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| Q |
How do you pay Housing Benefit? |
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Private tenants and Housing Association Tenants (including Wakefield and District Housing Tenants) get a rent allowance. This payment is usually paid once every 4 weeks in arrears. We may pay this rent allowance either directly to the tenant or their landlord and payments can be made by cheque or directly into a bank account by BACS. If you or your landlord wish benefit to be paid by BACS we will need the account name, account number and the sort code.
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| Q |
How long do you pay benefit for? |
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Your benefit will only stop if you are no longer entitled to it, or, if your Income Support / JSA (IB) ends because you have started work or become self-employed. If this happens we will ask you for your new details so that we can work out a new amount of benefit for you.
While you get housing benefit, you must tell us straight away about any changes to the information you gave us on your application form, especially if you stop getting Income Support or JSA (IB). If you don't tell us straight away about any changes, you may get more benefit than you should. If this happens, we usually insist you pay it back to us.
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| Q |
Do you tell me how you have worked out my benefit? |
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No. But we do write and tell you how much benefit you will get. We also tell you in our letter what information we used to work it out. If you think we used any wrong information, you must tell us at once. If you want to know more about how we worked out your benefit, you can ask us for an explanation. This is known as a 'Statement of Reasons'.
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| Q |
What if I disagree with the way you work out my benefit? |
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If you think the decision is wrong you can ask the Council to look at your claim again. If the decision is wrong we will change it. This is known as a Revision. You can also Appeal against the decision. This must be done in writing within one calendar month of the letter telling you how much benefit you get. To find out more visit the Benefits Appeal page.
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| Q |
Can I get any other financial help? |
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Council Tax Benefit is paid to people on a low income who are liable for the Council Tax. It is worked out in a similar way to housing benefit. You can claim it using the same Benefit Application Form that you use to claim housing benefit. Contact your local Benefits Agency Office for information on Social Security Benefits. People with disabilities can use a free telephone enquiry services. Benefits Enquiry Line (BEL) 0800 882200. Pensioners can contact The Pension Service on 0845 6060265. - Discretionary Housing Payments
If you are receiving Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit, but still have difficulty paying your full rent or Council Tax, you may be able to get extra financial support. We have a limited amount of money which we can spend each year to help people who need help with these housing costs. This extra help is called Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP). For further details please contact us by telephone on 0845 8504504, calling at our reception on the ground floor at Civic Centre, Castleford. Alternatively you could ask us electronically using the Contact us section of this website.
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| Q |
What if I have a change to my circumstances? |
| A |
You must tell us about it straight away.
Changes could be things like:
- change of address
- increase or decrease in income
- increase or decrease in savings (capital)
- you start living with someone, get married or form a Civil partnership
- you or your partner stop receiving Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance (Income Based)
- you or your partner stops work or changes jobs
- if other people who live with you have income changes
- you or your partners Social Security Benefit / Tax Credit changes
- if anyone leaves or joins the household
- if anyone starts to receive Carers allowance for looking after you
- you separate from your partner, get divorced, or have your Civil Partnership dissolved.
You can report changes in your circumstances to us by
- telephone, call us on 0845 8 504 504
- in writing
- face to face, by visiting our reception on the ground floor at Civic Centre, Castleford or a Wakefield District Housing Service Access Point. Addresses or these offices can be found under the Contact us section.
- using the form you can download from this website.
Please make sure you keep a record of any contact you have with us.
Failure to tell us of your changes could mean loss of Benefit or being paid too much. If you receive too much you will be asked to pay it back. Failure to report a change may also result in court action.
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