Housing benefit

     

Housing benefit

Housing benefit is a national welfare benefit, which ensures that most people in receipt of income support/job seekers allowance or on low incomes will be able to apply for help with their rent.

• How much Housing Benefit will I get?
• Income
• Personal circumstances
• The rent charged
• Reduced Housing Benefit
• Calculate how much benefit you may be entitled to?
• How do I claim?

 

How much housing benefit will I get?

How much you get depends on your personal circumstances and includes:

• how much money you have coming in
• the amount of any savings
• if you have children
• are disabled
• who else lives in your home; and
• the amount of rent charged.

Benefit is worked out using rules set by the government. This benefit is for help with your rent, not your living costs like food and heating.

We can pay up to a maximum of 100% of your eligible rent. Your eligible rent may not be the same as the amount you pay your landlord.

 

Income

If you get income support or jobseekers' allowance (income-based) or if you are over 60 and get guarantee credit, and you have to pay rent, you can get the maximum amount of housing benefit.

Using what you tell us we will work out your housing benefit based on money you have coming in.  We add together your earnings and any other income of you and your partner (if you have one).

Earnings include:

• gross pay less tax, national insurance contributions and half of any contributions if you pay an occupational or personal pension. Some childcare charges may also be deducted
• business profits after any allowable expense are taken away

Other income includes:

• any other money coming in such as an occupational pension, most social security benefits and pensions, tax and pension credits. We do not count certain benefits you may get such as disability living allowance or attendance allowance. You need to tell us if you receive these benefits as disabled people may receive more benefit in certain circumstances.
• We will look at any savings you (and your partner if you have one) may have. If you have £6,000 or less we will ignore them. If you have more than £6,000 but not more than £16,000 we will take into account £1 per week for every unit or part unit of £250 above the lower limit.  If you are over 60, we will ignore the first £6,000 and take into account £1 per week for every unit or part unit of £500 above the lower limit of your savings.

If you have savings of more than £16,000 you will not normally be able to get any housing benefit (unless you are a pensioner and receive the guarantee credit element of pension credit).

 

Personal circumstances

We use amounts set each year by the government called personal allowances and premiums to work out how much you need to live on.

A personal allowance depends on:

• your age
• if you are single or have a partner
• how many dependent children you have and their ages.

Premiums are extra sums of money intended to recognise the special needs of:

• families
• disabled people and people who care for a disabled person
• one parent families
• people who have been sick for over 52 weeks or 28 weeks if they are terminally ill.

If you are not on income support or job seekers' allowance (income-based) you may still get maximum housing benefit if the money you have coming in is less than the allowances and premiums described above. If you have more money your housing benefit is reduced.

 

The rent charged

The maximum amount of housing benefit we can pay is based on your eligible rent. This may not be the same as you pay your landlord. If you are the tenant of a private landlord the Rent Service, who acts independently of the Council, may:-

• decide that the rent is high or the accommodation is over large; or
• that the rent is higher than the general level of local rents for similar property.

Special rules about the amount of rent that we can pay apply to tenants of private landlords who are single and under 25 years of age.

If you are thinking of renting a property from a private landlord and want to claim housing benefit, apply for a pre-tenancy fetermination before you commit yourself to a tenancy.  This will give you an idea of the amount of rent on which benefit is likely to be calculated. This is especially important if you are a single person under 25 years of age.  Pre-tenancy determination application forms are available at all of the Council offices or you can ask us to send you one by phoning our Customer Services Team on 01303 853555.

 

Reduced housing benefit

A deduction will be made from your housing benefit if you have another person living with you like an adult son or daughter or an elderly relative. These people are called non-dependants. The deduction will depend on the age and circumstances of your non-dependent. We do not make deductions if:

• you are blind or receive the care component of disability living or attendance allowance
• if the non-dependent is aged 16 or 17
• if the non-dependent is on youth training, a student, a long-term hospital in- patient, in legal custody or aged under 25 and on income support
• you must include on your benefit claim form any people living with you and tell us if anybody leaves or joins your household or has a change in their financial circumstances

 

Calculate how much benefit you may be entitled to

You can use our online benefit calculator to estimate how much benefit you may be entitled to. Simply answer the questions and press the calculate button.  The results will then be displayed. Please note this will only give you an estimate of how much benefit you may be entitled to and if it is worth making a claim.

 

How do I claim?

If you claim income support or job seekers' allowance (income-based) the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will either give you a form to complete or make an application for you to claim housing benefit. If you are not on income support or job seekers' allowance (income-based) or you have not been given a form and no application has been completed by the DWP you should complete one of our forms.

Benefit will usually start from the Monday after you tell us you want to claim providing you submit a completed claim form and the required evidence within one month. It is important you tell us immediately that you want to make a claim, you can do this by writing to us, by visiting us at any of our offices, by phone, by fax or by email.  We will arrange for a benefit assessor to telephone you and complete a form over the phone we will then make you an appointment to come into the Civic Centre to sign the form and provide any supporting evidence required.

Don't delay in registering your intention to claim as any delay could lead to a loss of benefit. Email us now using the email link below with your name, the address you want to claim for and a contact telephone number.

 Housing Benefit application form

Shepway District Council,
Civic Centre
Castle Hill Avenue
Folkestone, CT20 2QY

01303 853555 (Customer Services Team)

01303 853510

 Housing Benefit General Enquiries

Customer Services at the Civic Centre are open 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Monday to Friday.

We need your form returned with an original signature, so unfortunately we are unable to accept your completed application by email or fax. We also require original documentation for supporting evidence (photocopies are not acceptable). The best course of action is to contact us as above as you may not wish to put your original documentation in the post. We can then check that your form is completed correctly, advise you if any further documentation is required and make an appointment for you to come and see us. However should you find this difficult due to a disability we can arrange for a visiting officer to visit you at home. Our visiting officer can help you to complete your form and verify all original documentation. To arrange a home visit contact our Customer Services Team.