Housing benefit FAQs

Important: please read carefully before making your claim

Full service Universal Credit is now available in Salford, so you may have to claim Universal Credit instead of housing benefit for help towards paying your rent.

You can only make a claim for housing benefit if one of the following applies:

• You live in supported or exempt accommodation
• You or your partner are pension-age – however it depends on your circumstances, find out more on our mixed age claims page
• You live in temporary accommodation provided by the Local Authority

If you do not fall into any of the above categories you need to claim Universal Credit instead.

Apply for Universal Credit

Please note: Universal Credit does not include help towards council tax. If you need help with your council tax payments you can claim Council Tax Reduction online by clicking the 'Make your claim online' button below. Find out more about Council Tax Reduction.

The easiest way to make a new claim for housing benefit and or council reduction is to do it online.

Drop in to your local Gateway or Hub.

If you are vulnerable or unable to make a claim online or visit your local Gateway or Hub then please contact us on 0161 793 2500.

Yes you can claim housing benefit if you work and receive a low income.

We will need to see proof of your earnings and capital/assets. You will need to provide:

• your last five pay slips, if you are paid weekly
• your last three pay slips if you are paid fortnightly
• your last two pay slips, if you are paid monthly
• if you have only recently started work and not yet been paid, ask your employer to provide an estimate of your gross earnings, Income Tax and National Insurance deductions. We will use this information to calculate your housing benefit until you receive actual details of your earnings. The employers form is included with the housing benefit application package, or you can call us to request one on 0161 793 2500
• most recent bank statements (covering most recent two months)

Yes, you can claim housing benefit if you are self-employed and receive a low income from your business. You will need to send us your most recent accounts, with your claim form if possible, and we will also send you our self-employed information sheet to complete. If this is a new business we will require a figure of projected earnings over a 13 week period. You will also need to provide your last two months bank statements.

If you are eligible to claim housing benefit, you need to provide proof of all income and capital in respect of yourself, your partner and anyone who lives with you who is aged 18 or over. You also need to provide proof of your identities and National Insurance numbers. The claim form will advise you what you can provide as proof.

If you are eligible for housing benefit, you need to send us proof of rent, which confirms the following information:

• your name and address
• your tenancy agreement
• your landlord's or agent's name and business address
• the date your tenancy started
• the amount of rent you are charged
• what is included in your rent, for example fuel, water, meals and other support services
• how often your rent is due

You may need to provide more than one type of proof of rent. For example, if your tenancy agreement does not contain the above information we may need a letter from your landlord to confirm the other information (on letter headed paper).

After you have submitted one of our forms we may need to contact you for further supporting evidence. We will do this by contacting you via the email address you have provided on your form, as this helps us to speed up the processing of your request. You can upload the evidence requested using the link provided in the body of our email to you. If you need support to do this you can visit one of our Gateways or Broughton Hub who will be happy to provide you with some digital assistance.

It will depend on the total amount of capital you and your partner have as to whether it will affect your benefit entitlement.

• If you and your partner have joint capital of more than £16,000 you will not normally be able to get housing benefit.
• You can have up to £6,000 capital before it affects your benefit entitlement.
• Under 60 years of age: A tariff of £1 will be applied for every £250 between £6,000 and £16,000 when we work out entitlement to benefit. For every £250 above £6,000 we say you have an extra £1 of income per week.
• Over 60 years of age: A tariff of £1 for every £500 between £6,000 and £16,000 is taken into account when we work out entitlement to benefit. For every £500 above £6,000 we say you have an extra £1 of income per week.
• Capital includes cash, current accounts, other bank/building society/post office accounts, unit trusts, ISAs, TESSAs, National Savings certificates, shares, premium bonds and property (other than the home you live in) or land you own.

Non-dependants are usually adult sons, daughters, other relatives or friends who live in the person claiming housing benefit's household on a non-commercial basis.

Housing benefit will normally be reduced if a non-dependant lives in the household.

There is an expectation that non-dependants will make a contribution towards their costs including rent, council tax and food, etc.

The amount they pay towards the above is not taken in to account and instead standard deductions are made from the housing benefit entitlement.

The government set standard non-dependant deductions which normally increase each April.

No deduction is made for any adult who is:

• under 25 and receiving income support, income-based jobseekers allowance, or universal credit where they have no earned income
• receiving pension credit
• a full-time student, (unless they are working at least 16 hours during holidays)

The amount that will be deducted for other adults depends on their weekly income.

Your benefit will usually start from the Monday after we receive your claim form. It is important that you return your claim form to us as soon as possible as any delay may result in you losing benefit. Please don't wait until you have all the proof needed to support your claim.

Under pension credit qualifying age:

You will need to submit your request for backdate in writing, and be able to show that there was a good reason why you did not make your claim earlier. You can request backdated benefit on the housing benefit claim form, apply online or you can download the form below. Alternatively, you can request a backdate form from one of our customer service centres or by telephoning 0161 793 2500, or by writing to us with your details.

From 1 April 2016, any requests for backdated benefit (under pension credit qualifying age) may only be awarded up to one month earlier.

Over pension credit qualifying age:

If you claim housing benefit and/or council tax reduction we would normally start your benefit up to three months before the date you made your claim. We can only do this if you have to pay rent or council tax for this period and are entitled to claim. If this is the case, we will write to you to ask for further details if we do not have them.

Further information about local housing allowance.

a) Housing associations (including ForHousing and Salix Homes) and Pendleton Together tenants - the rent we will use to work out your housing benefit entitlement will depend on the following:

• If you or your partner have reached the qualifying age for pension credit (61.5 years as at April 2013) your eligible rent for housing benefit purposes will be the amount charged by your landlord excluding any service charges that are not eligible to be covered by housing benefit.
• If you or your partner have not reached the qualifying age for pension credit your eligible rent for housing benefit purposes will depend on whether you are considered to have any spare bedrooms.

b) People living in privately rented properties. If you live in private sector accommodation your eligible rent will be determined by the local housing allowance (LHA) rate which is appropriate to the size of your household and not the size of the property you live in. The LHA levels are set by the Rent Service who assesses the LHA for the area in which you live. You can find out LHA rates and more information.

Housing benefit is awarded for as long as entitlement remains. From time to time we may need to confirm details of your claim and we will contact you where this is necessary or we may arrange to visit you. We may also receive information from a third party such as Department for Work and Pensions or HM Revenues and Customs. It is very important that you let us know of any changes to yours or your households circumstances eg changes in income (amount or type), someone moves in or out of the household etc as this could affect how much you are entitled to receive.

• Salix Homes tenants - your benefit can be paid directly into your bank account or to your landlord's bank account.
• ForHousing tenants - your benefit can be paid directly into your bank account or to your landlord's bank account.
• Pendleton Together tenants – your benefit can be paid directly into your bank account or to your landlord's bank account.
• Tenants of housing associations - your benefit can be paid directly into your bank account or to your landlord's bank account.
• Tenants living in privately rented properties - normally housing benefit is paid directly to the claimant, into their bank account. Under the local housing allowance rules the tenant does have the option to request that payments are made to their landlord. The payment will be made directly into their landlord's bank account, although the council may decide to do this if there is a good reason, for example, if there are rent arrears or the customer would struggle to manage their rent payments.

When we receive your claim we will check the form and the proof that you have provided. If we have all of the information we need we will process your claim as quickly as possible and inform you of the outcome of your claim.

If we need any further information we will phone, write, email or contact you by text message. You will have one calendar month to provide us with any additional information that we request or for you to advise us when the information will be available. Failure to do this may result in you losing benefit.

When we have decided your claim we will send you a notification letter, which will advise you of the outcome. The letter will include all of the details we have used to work out your benefit entitlement so it is important that you check that the information is correct. You must let us know within one month if you do not agree with the decision we have made in your case. You can ask for an explanation of our decision, ask us to reconsider our decision or appeal against our decision. See our how to appeal a decision page.

If your circumstances change, you need to let us know straight away. Otherwise you may receive too little or too much benefit. 

It is an offence not to tell us about any change of circumstance that affects your benefit. This must be done in writing. For more information, go to our change in circumstances page.

Notify us as soon as possible by calling 0161 793 2500, or use our benefits enquiry form or write to us at the address below.

If you have been on Income Support, Income Based Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance for 26 weeks or more, immediately before starting work, you may be entitled to an Extended Payment of housing benefit.

This means that for the first four weeks after you start work you will continue to receive the same amount of housing benefit that was in payment before starting work.

Extended payment (EP): To claim your EP, you shouldn't need to do anything. If you've been in receipt of Income Support or Income Based Jobseekers Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance as we can process your EP using the information from the Department for Work and Pensions when they tell us you have started work. If you are getting Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance and you make an in-work claim for housing benefit we will consider making an EP award. However, if you do not intend to make a claim when you start work and think you should get an EP award please contact us by calling 0161 793 2500.

You may also be able to get an extended payment of council tax reduction to cover council tax.

If you or your partner start work and will receive a low wage you may still be entitled to housing benefit. You will need to complete an online change of circumstances form giving details of change and provide proof of your earnings and other income.

Where you have not yet received your first wage from your new employer, we will need to determine what your likely weekly gross earnings, Income Tax and National Insurance deductions will be. You can download a change of circumstances form and estimated earnings certificate.

When you have received your first wage slips you need to send them to the benefit section so that we can check that we have used the correct information to work out your entitlement to housing benefit.

If you do not qualify for full housing benefit, it may mean that you have to pay something towards your rent.

You may be able to get a discretionary housing payment to help towards these payments.

Benefits enquiry form