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Help and support with cost of living

Tell us about a change in your circumstances

It is very important that you let us know immediately if you have a change in your circumstances as 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 should be done no later than one month for Housing Benefit or 21 days for Council Tax Reduction from the date your circumstances change. If you do not do this, we may take action against you which could include imposing a penalty, caution or court action. If we've paid you too much benefit, you will probably have to pay it back.

You can report any changes online (including ending your claim) by using the 'Report a change of circumstances' link below or at your nearest Gateway Centre where you can use one of our public PCs.

Please note that if you already have a change being dealt with then the system won’t allow you to submit another change.

To report a change in circumstances online you will need to provide your last name, National Insurance Number, date of birth, post code and your current benefit claim reference. You can find your benefit claim reference on a recent benefit entitlement letter or on your Salford customer account, click on ‘My account’ at the top of this page to log in or register for a Salford customer account.

Report change of circumstances online

Filling in the form

It's important that you provide details of the change, the date that the change occurred and proof to support this change.

At the end of the form you will be advised of the supporting evidence you need to provide based on the details supplied.

You can upload any supporting evidence when completing the online form. By providing evidence such as payslips, self employed accounts, proof of rent, proof of identity etc your form may be dealt with quicker and we may not have to request this at a later date which could delay your change of circumstances being processed.

Documents can be uploaded whenever you see the hyperlink ‘Upload evidence’. Please do not use ‘password protection’ on any uploaded documents, as we will not be able to open them.

File types that can be uploaded are:

  • GIF
  • JPG
  • PDF
  • PNG
  • TIFF

Examples of the type of changes that you need to report

  • if your rent changes (private tenants only)
  • changes in income or capital - you or your partner
  • changes in status (eg marriage, separation, bereavement)
  • the end of entitlement to Income Support (IS), Jobseekers Allowance Income or Contributions Based (JSAIB or JSA Conts) Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) - you or your partner
  • absences exceeding, or likely to exceed, 13 weeks - you or your partner
  • Changes affecting people who live with you including:
    • if someone comes to live with you or if someone leaves your household
    • if the income or circumstances of someone living with you change (eg if they start or end work, start or finish) college/university or any benefits they receive starts or ends
    • if you stop getting child benefit for someone

This list only provides some examples of the type of changes. There are many more. If you're unsure if a change will affect your housing benefit entitlement, please check with us.

This page was last updated on 1 April 2025

Benefits

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