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Housing Benefit can help you pay your rent on the property you live in if you’re unemployed, on a low income or claiming benefits. To qualify, you must have savings of less than £16,000 unless you receive the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit. How much you are entitled to will depend on your own circumstances.
Council Tax Reduction (CTR) provides help for people on a low income. If you qualify for CTR you won’t receive a payments, but your Council Tax bill will be reduced instead.
For information on other benefits https://www.gov.uk/check-benefits-financial-support
Please find a list below of some of the considerations taken and what they mean.
Capital is anything that has a monetary value, such as land and property, investments, and savings. You need to let us know if you, or your partner, have a change in the amount of savings or capital you have.
Please note this is not a full list. Other forms of investments, properties, savings, or anything that has monetary value could be counted as capital. Please contact us if you need more information.
A non-dependant is someone who lives with you and is aged 18 years and above.
It does not include someone who lives with you, who has a legally enforceable agreement to pay rent to you or your landlord.
A non-dependant might be your child or an elderly relative.
If any non-dependants live in your home, we may have to reduce the amount of help you get.
This is called a non-dependant deduction.
The amount of deduction made depends on how much gross income your non-dependant has and whether they are working over 16 hours a week.
By gross income we mean all the money they get, which includes:
We will need to see original proof of the non-dependant's income and capital, for example pay slips and bank statements. If you don't show us original proof (i.e. not photocopies), we will deduct the maximum allowed.
Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment do not count as income.
The non-dependant deductions change every April. You can view the current deduction levels in the PDF files below:
You can view 2022-23 deduction levels in the PDF files below:
If the non-dependants living in your home are married to each other or living together as a couple, we add their incomes together and make one deduction.
If you share your home with a joint tenant/owner and a non-dependant lives in the home with both of you, we will take only half the normal non-dependant deduction.
Deductions are not made if you or your partner are:
Deductions are not made if the non-dependant adult living with you:
Special rules apply for existing cases (not new claims), when the claimant or partner is aged 65 or over and:
In these circumstances, the non-dependant deduction (or the increased deduction) will not take effect for 26 weeks.
If you have to pay for childcare costs, some of your earnings can be disregarded. This can be up to £175 for 1 child and £300 for 2 or more children each week.
To qualify, your childcare provider must be registered with a local authority or Ofsted. You must also fall into one of the following groups:
We will need proof of the childcare payments you make, and if the care is provided by a Childminder, a copy of their Registration Certificate.
You can download a Childcare Costs form for completion by the Childcare Provider:
If you are a full-time student, you may qualify for help with your rent.
This is if you fall into one of these categories:
Partners of students, who are not students themselves, are eligible to claim Housing Benefit on behalf of the couple.
We will need information about the student's income, where they study and the course dates. Please contact us if you need further advice
Housing Benefit is reduced for some people who are living in a property larger than required for their household size. This applies to working age people renting from a social landlord such as the Council or a housing association.
It does not apply to pensioners.
The rules restrict the size of accommodation you can receive Housing Benefit for, based on the number of people in your household. The rules allow for 1 bedroom for:
If someone is assessed as having more bedrooms in their accommodation than is necessary, they will be under-occupying that property.
This means they will get a reduction on their Housing Benefit.
Under-occupying is also known as 'Bedroom Tax'.
If you are thinking of moving, you need to consider these changes before you renew or make a new tenancy agreement.
If your Housing Benefit is cut, you will have to pay the difference between your Housing Benefit and rent to your housing provider.
If you don't want to move, you can remain in your present home but you will have to pay any shortfall in rent due to any extra unoccupied or 'spare' bedrooms.
If you have a specific reason for needing to stay in your property, such as disability, you may be able to apply for Discretionary Housing Payments
Other than the cases stated above, there are no exceptions to the application of the size limit rules.
You may be able to receive an extra room allowance if you have a disabled person who is unable to share a bedroom. The disabled person must be in receipt of:
If you think this applies to someone in your household, please complete our online form:
Apply for extra bedroom allowance
They may be entitled to a bedroom. Complete the Additional Bedroom for Overnight Carers form to provide us with details and we will give you a decision.
Self-employed people are workers who are not employed under a contract.
Self-employed workers, for example, might be window cleaners, certain taxi drivers, painters and decorators.
A person can be self-employed as a sole trader or as part of a business partnership.
If you have recently started trading on a self-employed basis, we will ask for an estimate of the likely income and expenses for the business over the first few months trading. This will help us to work out your entitlement.
If you have been trading for over 12 months, we will ask for a full year's trading figures – normally in the way of a "profit and loss account". We will ask you for your unique tax reference number.
We may also ask for the most recent tax assessment form received from the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
We may also ask you to complete a Self-employed earnings form.
Complete a self-employed earnings form
The starting point in the calculation is to work out the total business income for the period in question. This will include all money coming in, business start-up allowances, etc. but will not include sums of capital paid into the business.
The rules the Council use are like the rules operated for Tax purposes. Notable differences are that we cannot deduct any sums for expenses such as depreciation, business entertaining, capital repayments on loans or any sum which relates purely or partially to a private expense.
Childminders are treated differently. Instead of working out what their actual expenses are, two thirds of their total income will be disregarded. The remaining third becomes their "business income" in our calculations.
If you are a partner in a partnership, the pre-tax profit for the business (i.e. gross income less expenses) is divided equally between the number of partners. If there is a formal agreement in the partnership which governs that profit should be treated differently, this will take priority.
We will calculate Tax and National Insurance deductions ourselves based on the pre-tax profit figure. These figures may differ from the figures worked out by HMRC. Half of any private pension contributions are also disregarded.
All the above are then deducted from your pre-tax profit figure to give us the net income amount to be used when calculating Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction.
It is a condition of receiving Housing Benefit that you are living in the property for which you are claiming benefit.
There are certain exceptions to this rule which means that some people can continue to claim Housing Benefit during periods of absence.
It is possible to have these periods extended in certain circumstances. Please download our temporary absence information for details about how long you can be absent and still retain your Housing Benefit.
If you are unsure how your absence will be treated contact us for advice
If you know that you will be away from your property for a length of time, please advise us beforehand. We need the following information:
You may also be asked to complete a new application form.
If anything changes during the absence you need to let us know immediately if: