Claim Housing Benefit
If you are still eligible to claim Housing Benefit from us, you will need:
- your name, address and contact details
- the full names and dates of birth of everyone who lives with you, and what their relationship is to you
- your National Insurance number
- the amount of rent you pay, including a breakdown of any service charges
- the name and address of your landlord
- the date you moved in to your property
- the account number and sort code of all your bank accounts
- the amount of savings, capital and investments you have
- the name of your employer
- how much you earn
- to tell us if you get any other benefits or tax credits, including what they are and how much you get
- how much child maintenance you get, and how often you get it
- to tell us if you get child care costs, how much you get, how often you get it and which child it's for
- to tell us if you have any other income, and how much you get
If you live with your partner, you will also need:
- their name and contact details
- their National Insurance number
- the account number and sort code of all of their bank accounts
- the amount of savings, capital and investments they have
- the name of their employer
- how much they earn
- to tell us if they get any other benefits or tax credits, including what they are and how much they get
- how much child maintenance they get, and how often they get it
- to tell us if they get child care costs, how much they get, how often they get it and which child it's for
- to tell us if they have any other income, and how much they get
If you do not provide the information we need about your partner, your claim will not be valid.
If you have any non-dependants living with you, you will need:
- how much they earn
- to tell us if they get any other benefits or tax credits, including what they are and how much they get
If you do not provide the information we need about a non-dependant, you might not get the full amount of your claim.
You need to make your Housing Benefit claim as soon as possible. However, in some cases we can backdate your claim by up to one month.
You may find it easier to complete the Housing Benefit claim form on a desktop computer (rather than on a smartphone or tablet).
If you don’t have access to the internet or a desktop computer, you can use self-service desktop computers at:
- the Customer Service Centre, Civic Centre
- Chelmsford Library
- South Woodham Ferrers Library
How we pay Housing Benefit
We pay your Housing Benefit into your bank account four weeks in arrears. You can ask us to pay it to your landlord, and we will tell you if we can or can't.
If you have rent arrears of eight weeks or more, we will pay your Housing Benefit directly to your landlord. If there is a dispute about rent arrears between you and your landlord, we will suspend your Housing Benefit while we investigate.
Benefit fraud
You need to be honest when you make your benefit claim. If you’re dishonest, you will be committing benefit fraud.
You can find out about benefit fraud on GOV.UK.