Housing Benefits provides help with paying your rent. The amount of help to which you may be entitled will depend on your income, savings and family circumstances. To claim you will need to complete an application form which you can obtain from The Housing Benefits Section at the Town Hall, or download it here: Housing and Council Tax Benefit Claim form
The new claim form has been specially designed to be easy to fill in. It may look rather long, but we have to ask a lot of questions to make sure that everyone who claims gets the right amount of benefit.
Housing Benefit does not provide assistance with paying mortgages. You may be able to receive assistance for your mortgage from the Department for Work and Pensions.
If you need help completing the forms please contact us. You should return the form as quickly as possible, even if you do not have all the documentation requested. Delaying return of the form could result in a loss of some benefit. Please send the rest of the information as soon as you can. Original documentation must be provided including two proofs of identity, one of which must have your National Insurance number on.
Always ensure that your name, address and National Insurance number is on everything that you send.
When your entitlement to benefit has been calculated you will receive a determination letter showing how it has been worked out. You must check this letter carefully and let us know if any of the information used is incorrect.
You have the right to a review and if necessary a further review of any determination that the Council has made regarding your Housing/Council Tax Benefit, however this must be done within strict time scales. You should contact the Benefits Section if you need to know more about this.
If your circumstances change you must inform the Benefits Section straight away. Failure to do so may mean that we will take court action against you and if we pay you too much benefit, you will have to repay it. Please use this change of circumstances form to tell us
Housing and Council Tax Benefit Change of Circumstances Form (2 pages)
Changes we need to know about :
-
Moving home
-
Starting work
-
Changes in your income, or anyone else who lives in the property
-
Changes to the people who live in your property
This list does not cover every change that we need to know about. If you are unsure about this or need any further information regarding Housing/Council Tax Benefit please contact the Benefits Section on (023) 9254 5325. or email benefits@gosport.gov.uk
Advice: If you are applying for Housing / Council Tax Benefit
Local Housing Allowances
Important Changes
There are new changes from 2nd November 2009 regarding Housing and Council Tax Benefit, these mean that if you previously did not qualify due to your income, you may now be entitled to Benefit. Please click above for details.
Do you know someone who is claiming benefit to which they may not be entitled?
If the answer to the above question is yes, telephone this office on (023) 9254 5545 giving full details so that allegations can be investigated. Alternatively, fill out our online 'Housing Benefit - Reporting a Fraud' form.
Any information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.
|
|
