Housing Benefit Payments

If you are on a low income you may get help towards your rent. You can apply if you are working, or unemployed. You must:

• rent your home
• live in the home you're claiming benefit for
• be on a low income
• have savings of less than £16,000, unless you receive one of the following:
• Income Support
• Jobseekers Allowance (income based)
• Employment and Support Allowance (income related)
• Pension Credit (guarantee credit)

If you have a partner we will include their income and savings when we work out any benefit.

If you are working age, you won’t normally be able to get housing benefit. You will need to apply for help through Universal Credit unless you live in temporary or supported accommodation.

Information we may collect

We will collect personal information about you, your family and other parties so you may need to have some personal documents to hand. This information will include:

• Details about you and your partner, such as, name, address, telephone number, email address, National Insurance Number, date of birth.
• Details about income, allowances, savings and investments including those of your partner and details about other people in your household.
• Other relevant information needed to process your application. This could include your landlord details and the amount of any rent and Council Tax you have to pay - it will be helpful to have your Council Tax band ready if you are liable to pay.

We will check some of the information with other sources to ensure the information you have provided is accurate or if there is further benefit or support that could be provided to you.

We may also share your information with other Council Departments and external organisations such as the Department for Work and Pensions, banks and other financial organisations to detect and prevent fraud. We may ask you to provide proof of some documents.