Housing benefit how long does it take

Talk to your work coach if you would like to know more about this. If you receive Universal Credit you may have to pay less in Council Tax. This will depend on your circumstances and where you live. If you are claiming Universal Credit for the first time you should apply for Local Council Tax Reduction straight away, as many local councils will not backdate it for you.

You do not need to wait until your claim for Universal Credit has been approved or paid. If changes to your benefits mean you receive less money, you may be able to get extra help towards your housing costs from your local council. These are called Discretionary Housing Payments. You will only be able to get Discretionary Housing Payments if you receive Universal Credit housing costs and you need more help. Find out how to apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment.

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You can find out more about how they use your data at Facebook , Twitter and Google. Skip to main content. Is it for me? Claiming housing costs When you make a new claim for Universal Credit your housing costs will usually be paid as part of your Universal Credit payment. Information you need to make a claim If you are applying for housing costs for rented property as part of your Universal Credit claim, you will need to bring evidence of how much your rent is to your new claim interview.

Types of housing costs Mortgages If you have a mortgage, Universal Credit may provide help towards the cost of your mortgage payments. To get this help you will need to provide evidence of your mortgage or loan. This could be: a mortgage agreement a current mortgage statement a loan agreement, or bank statements showing the payment of the mortgage or loans Help with mortgage payments or loans is provided as a loan.

Read more about support for mortgage interest Shared ownership schemes A shared ownership scheme is usually provided by housing associations where you part rent and part buy your home. Service charges Some people are expected to pay a service charge on their rented property, in addition to their normal monthly rent.

You should phone or visit the Housing Benefit department and check that they have got your form and all the information that they require to process your claim. Ask for the name of the person that you are speaking to. You should take a note of their name, the date that you spoke to them, and what they said.

Keep this in a safe place with the receipts for your form and your information. If you are a council or housing association tenant in rent arrears, ask your housing officer to help chase your claim.

Unfortunately, forms do get lost in the post and in council offices. If this happens, you will have to fill in another form and try to provide the information required again. If you have receipts for the form or the information you handed in already, include these with the form.

Your benefit should be paid from the Monday after you handed in your first form. If you cannot prove that you handed in your first form, you may not get benefit until the date you handed the second form in. If they do not believe you, contact an adviser.

If you have not received a payment within 14 days of handing in your form and you have provided all the information required, you should be entitled to a stop-gap payment while you are waiting for your claim to be processed. It cannot be paid if you are a council tenant.

This does not always happen, so you or your landlord may have to remind your council to make a payment. Once your claim is assessed, any difference between your Housing Benefit entitlement and the amount of Housing Benefit paid on account will either be refunded or reclaimed from you.

In some cases, the council may tell you that your claim has been dropped, cancelled or made defective. Check if you can make a new Housing Benefit claim. If you're not sure, give the council an estimate. This is so they can work out how much Housing Benefit you should get. If your savings are over a certain limit, you need to tell your local council if your savings go up or down.

What you need to tell your local council depends on whether you get the guarantee part of Pension Credit. You only need to tell the council if you change the number of lodgers or boarders living with you or how much you charge them.

A lodger is someone who lives with you and pays rent. A boarder is someone who lives with you and pays for meals, like breakfast every day. If you claim Housing Benefit as part of a couple, your Housing Benefit will usually stop when the older partner reaches State Pension age. If your client has moved in with their new partner, their Housing Benefit will stop unless they:. They'll need to claim Universal Credit for their housing costs.

The older partner stays part of the claim and they get a pensioner premium in their existing benefit. Your client can only make a new claim to Housing Benefit if they or their partner were getting Pension Credit since before 15 May UK to find out how you can report the change. You could take a photo of the screen if your phone has a camera. Or you can save the page as a screenshot or a file on your computer.

This will help later if you need to prove you reported the change. Give as much information about the change as you can. For example if your partner has moved out, tell the council their name, when they moved and what their new address is. To apply for Housing Benefit you need use My Account. Our normal processing time is two to five weeks depending on the claim and information provided. However, due to Covid 19 and a change in our workflow systems, applications are taking longer to process than expected.

Our average processing time at the moment is between eight to ten weeks.