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- Housing, Council Tax and Benefits
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- Benefits
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- Housing Benefit
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- Before you apply
Housing Benefit
Due to essential maintenance, our forms for things like benefit claims and Council Tax discounts will be unavailable between 9am and 4pm on Sunday 21 April. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience.
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Before you apply
Housing Benefit doesn’t include payment towards your Council Tax. If you need help with your Council Tax, you may be able to apply for Council Tax Support too.
You can apply for Housing Benefit if you pay rent, either to a housing association or a private landlord and you are of:
- working age and you live in supported accommodation or placed in temporary accommodation by this authority and you have less than £16,000 in savings or;
- pension age and have savings less than £16,000 or you are in receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee
If you are of working age and not living in supported or temporary accommodation, you can apply for Universal Credit who will consider your entitlement to housing costs within this benefit.
What you’ll get
We’ll work out how much Housing Benefit you’ll get based on your circumstances and the amount of rent you pay.
You can visit GOV.UK to see which benefits you may be entitled to, including Housing Benefit.
If you’re renting a private property, we’ll work out your Housing Benefit using the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) if:
- there’s a break in your entitlement or you stop claiming, even for a week
- you move home
If we use the LHA to work out your claim, we’ll look at who lives with you and where you live.
You can visit Direct.gov to find out how much LHA you could get. You'll need your postcode.
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