Article: New claims for housing benefit Article Body What is housing benefit? Housing benefit is a government scheme administered by the council to help you pay your rent. It is based on a number of things including your income and savings, your personal circumstances and the number of people living with you. There are three different names for housing benefit; Rent allowance - For housing association tenants and some tenants of private landlords Rent rebate - for Berneslai Homes tenants Local housing allowance - for tenants of private landlords who claimed after 7 April 2008 If you would like to know how much housing benefit/council tax benefit you may be entitled to please use our online benefits calculator. You can also telephone our benefits helpline on 01226 774743. Who can claim? You can claim housing benefit if you pay rent to live in your home and you are on a low income. You can claim housing benefit even if you are working. You must also live in the UK, occupy the dwelling as your home and be liable to pay rent on that dwelling. Joint income and joint capital will be assessed in cases where you have a partner. A partner is someone you are married to, or someone you live with as if you are married, or a civil partner or person you live with as if you are civil partners. You cannot claim housing benefit if: you are not liable to pay rent you have more than £16,000 in capital (either you or your partner, or you and your partner together unless you receive the guarantee credit part of pension credit) you live in a nursing home or residential care home you are a full time student in higher education (unless you are in an exempt category, for example single parents) you are living in the same household and paying rent to a close relative, an in-law or employer you rent a former joint home from your ex-partner you are the parent or guardian of your landlord's child As the rules and regulations are quite complicated please claim if you are not sure and we will let you know if you qualify. How to claim If you want to claim council tax benefit as well as housing benefit, you only need to complete one claim form. You can get a claim form by: Downloading a copy of our benefit application form and the accompanying application form guidance notes Telephoning: 01226 774743 Writing to: Benefits, Taxation and Welfare Rights Division, PO Box 634, Barnsley, S70 9GG Calling into any Barnsley Connects office If you have claimed Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit, your details may already have been passed to us by the Department for Work and Pensions. If you are unsure whether you have applied for housing benefit, council tax benefit or second adult rebate please ring us on 01226 774743. Please claim straight away and provide all the documents requested on the form, otherwise your claim will be delayed. Help is available to complete the form, at all our Barnsley Connects offices. If you are housebound or have restricted mobility, please ring us and we can ask an officer to visit you at home. What evidence is required? When you claim housing benefit and council tax benefit you need to provide us with original documents to support your application. The documents we require are shown on the benefit claim form and accompanying notes. Further details are available please see evidence for your benefit claim. If you are self employed or a student please ring the benefits helpline on 01226 774743 for more information. How benefit is calculated? When assessing housing benefit entitlement we take into account the following things: your income your capital, savings and investments. Also property and land (other than your home) your personal circumstances, for example, your age, how many children you have, whether you are disabled and whether you have other people living with you the maximum local housing allowance (LHA) that is relevant to your circumstances the amount of rent you have to pay if you do not come under the LHA scheme if you are receiving Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance income-based or Pension Credit (guarantee credit) If you are receiving Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance income-based or Pension Credit (guarantee credit) If you are receiving Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance income-based or Pension Credit (guarantee credit), you will usually be entitled to receive full benefit, up to the maximum LHA level for your circumstances or the maximum rent decided by the Rent Service if you do not come under LHA rules. Housing benefit will not cover the cost of some services that may be included in your rent such as charges for gas, electricity and water rates. Your benefit may also be reduced by a non-dependant deduction if you have lodgers, grown up children or relatives living with you. This is because the government consider that other adults should contribute to the household. The amount of this deduction depends on their age and income. For more information see non-dependants. If you are not in receipt of Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance income-based or pension credit (guarantee credit) If you are not in receipt of Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance income-based or pension credit (guarantee credit) we will work out your benefit based on the money that you have coming in, the savings and investments you have and your family circumstances. To help us work out your benefit, we need to see proof of all the income and capital you and your partner have. Income includes such things as earnings, tax credits, pensions, benefits and maintenance that you may receive. If you have any non-dependants living with you, you will also have to give us details of their income and savings. If you do not we will have to take the highest deduction the law allows from your benefit. Capital includes savings, investments, cash, as well as money held in a current account, stocks, shares and other property or land. For details on what evidence is needed in support of a claim for benefit, please see evidence for your benefit claim. Applicable Amount If you are not in receipt of Income Support or Job Seeker's Allowance income-based or Pension Credit (guarantee credit) your income will be assessed against an 'Applicable Amount'. This is a needs allowance made up of allowances and premiums based on your personal and family circumstances. These allowances and premiums are set by central government. The higher your net income is above your Applicable Amount, the less benefit you will be entitled to. Next steps When we have received all the information we need from you, we will work out how much benefit you are entitled to and write to you with the details. This will normally take up to ten working days. See our service standards leaflet for further information. The date of claim for housing benefit is usually the date your benefit application is received by us or the date you first told us you wished to make a claim. If you have reached the qualifying age for pension credit your claim can be automatically backdated for a maximum of three months. If you are of working age and you want your claim to be backdated you must tell us why you could not claim earlier. You must show that you had a good reason (known as 'good cause' for not applying sooner). Please see backdated housing benefit for more information. If you think your benefit is wrong for any reason you can contact us to: ask us to explain our decision ask us to look again at the decision appeal to an independent tribunal For further details please see housing benefit appeals. Payment of housing benefit Most claims made after 7 April 2008 will be paid under the local housing allowance rules. There are some exemptions to this, which are shown below. Under the local housing allowance (LHA) rules we must pay housing benefit to the claimant. There is no longer the choice to ask us to pay a landlord or their agent, even if the claimant would like us to. However, some people may have difficulty paying their rent. Payments of housing benefit may therefore be paid direct to the landlord if: we consider that a tenant is unlikely to pay their rent we think that a tenant cannot deal with their own affairs a tenant is more than eight weeks in arrears with their rent the landlord helps you secure a new tenancy, or keep your current one, by charging a reduced rent that you can afford. The rent must be at, or near the LHA rate, and you must be able to afford any shortfall Payments to landlords are made four weekly in arrears. If the local housing allowance rules do not apply, there is more choice about who we can pay. A tenant is exempt from local housing allowance rules in the following categories: tenants of Berneslai Homes tenants of registered social landlords tenants of registered housing associations claims made before 7th April 2008 tenancies which started before 15th January 1989 certain supported housing, where the landlord is a registered social landlord, charity or non profit making voluntary organisation, that provides the tenant with care, support or supervision; or hostel dwellers; or tenancies where the Rent Officer has decided that a substantial part of the rent is for board and attendance If the LHA rules do not apply payments may be made to the claimant, landlord or the landlord's agent. If you are a Berneslai Homes tenant your housing benefit will be paid weekly directly to your rent account. Frequency of payments Housing benefit is paid four weekly in arrears to either the claimant or landlord. Method of payment Housing benefit is paid directly into a nominated bank or building society. If you do not have a bank account we can give you information on how to set up a basic bank account. If you are a Berneslai Homes tenant your benefit will be paid to your rent account. Change of circumstances If your circumstances change you must tell us about it straight away. Please see housing benefit change in circumstances for further details. Application forms Housing and council tax benefit application form Housing and council tax benefit application form - guidance notes Change of address form Declaration to disclose information to landlord form Request for direct payment to landlord Request for payment into a bank account 8 weeks in arrears form Related documents Safeguards policy Service standards Landlord newsletters Legislation Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006 Housing Benefit (persons that have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 Council Tax Benefit (persons that have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 Data Protection Act 1998 Contact details Enquiries and requests for application forms can be made as follows: email: benefitassessments@barnsley.gov.uk Telephone the benefits helpline: 01226 774743 Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm and Friday 9am to 4.30pm Fax: 01226 774733 By writing or sending documents to: Benefits, Taxation and Welfare Rights Division, PO Box 634, Barnsley, S70 9GG By personal visit to any Barnsley Connects office Additional information To learn more about our compliments, comments and complaints process please see general complaints. Related services Council Tax Welfare Rights Barnsley Connects Homelessness and Housing Advice View your benefit detaills online Benefits calculator Other useful websites DirectGov-Money,Tax and Benefits Valuation Office Agency (Rent Service) Citizens Advice Bureau Data Protection We will use the information you give on the housing benefit application form and any supporting evidence you send us to process your claim for housing benefit. We may pass the information on to the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC, as allowed by law. We may also use the information to tell you what other welfare benefits you are entitled to. We may check the information provided by you, or information about you provided by someone else, against other information we hold. We may also ask other agencies, organisations, local authorities or government departments to give us information they have about you to make sure the information is accurate, to prevent or detect crime and to protect public funds.