Housing Benefit

If you are on a low income and need help to pay your rent, in most cases you will now need to apply for Universal Credit from the Department for Work & Pensions.

However, you will still need to apply to us for Housing Benefit if:

you are of state pension age
you live in supported or temporary accommodation

To be eligible to claim you must:

rent your home privately, or through the Council or a Housing Association
live in the home you're claiming benefit for
be on a low income

You can't usually claim Housing Benefit if you're a full-time student or if you live in the home of a close relative. Housing Benefit cannot help with mortgage costs.

How much you will get

The amount of benefit you will receive is worked out by looking at:

your income
your personal circumstances
your savings
the amount of rent you have to pay
the type of landlord you have

If you rent from a private landlord, we will base your rent on:

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates

How long your claim will take

We aim to process claims within 20 days of receiving your application. You can help speed up your application by supplying all the required supporting documents when you apply.

As soon as your claim is decided we will make a first payment of any benefit owing up to, and including, that week.

How you will be paid

The way you get paid Housing Benefit depends on the type of tenant you are:

if you are a council tenant, it's paid into your rent account - you will not receive the money
if you are a private or housing association tenant, it's paid into your bank or building society account - we do not issue cheques