If you
claim housing benefit and or council tax benefit you have a duty to
tell the council when any of your circumstances change. This
includes even small changes to the amount of any
other benefits you receive.
If you do not tell us about any changes to your income,
household or whereabouts then it could lead to problems later
on.
For example, if we pay you too much benefit you may have to pay it
back which could lead to financial hardship.
However from July
2011 there is a new initiative which is designed to streamline this
process. Currently it only affects Tax Credits.
If the DWP are
aware that you claim housing or council tax benefit, they will tell
the council about the change as soon as it is processed. The change
will be checked by the council who will update your claim and then
notify you of any changes. If the change to your tax credits
is large then this will indicate that your other income (wages etc)
may have changed as well and so we may contact you to check the
details.
This does of
course mean that we make changes to your claim very quickly and so
it helps to make sure that we are paying you the correct amount at
the right time.
This does not
remove your obligation to contact the council about other changes
e.g. if your working hours have changed or your wages have gone up
or down but it does mean that the speed of the change will help to
avoid you being paid too much benefit and then having to pay it
back
There are plans to
extend this scheme to other DWP benefits before the end of 2011 so
please check this website again for further updates.
You can notify us by filling in
our change in circumstances form (pdf, Aug
10, 121KB) or by contacting
our housing
and council tax benefit customer services team.
If you are moving house then you will need to fill in our
change in address form(pdf, Aug 10,
170KB)
However, you do not have to tell us about any changes in age as we
will have this information already.
