It is your responsibility as a tenant to make a housing
benefit claim.
You will need to provide proof of how much rent you pay and what
services are included such as heating, water rates and meals.
If you have a tenancy agreement you can send us a copy of that
and we will use it to work out all the details we need.
However, if you do not have one then you will need your landlord
to write us a letter containing the following
information:
- Their name and address
- Your name and address
- How much rent you pay and what services this includes
- How much you pay for these services
- What date your tenancy started and the date you moved in
- What type of tenancy you have
We will check any documents or information made in support of a
claim to ensure they meet our verification standards and to prevent
benefit fraud.
All claims with a deregulated tenancy are referred to a
Government rent officer for a decision to be made on a reasonable
market rent for your property.
However, they will not be called in if your rent has been
registered as a fair rent.
If a rent is considered to be unreasonably high then the amount of
housing benefit paid could be restricted.
For example, this could occur because you are living in a property
which is larger than needed.
The following criteria are used when deciding whether a property is
too large with one bedroom allowed for each of the following:
- A married or unmarried couple
- A single person aged 16 years or over
- Two children under 16 years of the same sex
- Two children under 10 years
- A child under 16 years
Housing benefit cannot be paid for part of the rent which covers
what we call ineligible services such as water rates, fuel costs or
meals.
These costs are deducted from the rent payable before Housing
Benefit is calculated.
For example:
£70 total rent charged, which includes:
£1 water rates
£5.68 fuel
£12.60 part-board (for
meals).
Therefore £50.72 rent is eligible for housing
benefit.
This final figure is referred to as the "eligible rent" where a
tenant who receives income support is entitled to their full
eligible rent.
You have no obligation to tell your landlord that you have claimed
benefit and we can only discuss your claim with them if have given
permission.
For more information contact our
housing and
council tax benefit customer services
team.
