How to claim housing benefit, council tax support or Universal Credit

Claiming Universal Credit

Universal Credit has replaced the following benefits:

• Income support (IS)
• Income-based jobseeker's allowance (JSAIB)
• Income-related employment support allowance (ESAIR)
• Housing benefit (HB)
• Working tax credit (WTC)
• Budgeting loans (BL)

You will still claim help with your rent through the council if you are:

• Considered homeless and living in temporary accommodation
• Living in supported accommodation
• A pensioner - if you are a couple, your partner must also be a pensioner

Please visit our Universal Credit page for more information and how to make a claim.

Making a new claim for council tax support or housing benefit

If you are making a new claim for council tax support or housing benefit, you can do this by:

• Downloading a Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support Claim Form. If you are a homeowner you should download a Council tax support form
• Calling us or emailing us, using the contact details on this page

To make sure that a new claim starts from the correct date, please contact us to tell us of your intention to claim.

The date we use for the start of your claim is the Monday following the date we receive your application form. In certain circumstances we may be able to pay from an earlier date.

We have produced information in Nepali - कृपया हाम्रो 

Information for migrants coming into the UK from the EU

As the UK has now left the EU, the rules about who can claim housing benefit have changed.

If you are a citizen of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, you may be subject to immigration rules.

You are eligible to claim housing benefit if:

• You and your family have settled status (indefinite leave to remain) or pre-settled status 
• You had a right to reside on 31 December 2020

If you want to continue to work, study and claim benefits in the UK after 30 June 2021, you and your family members must consider applying for settled status.

If you are not sure if this affects you, please contact our Benefits team using the contact details on this page.

You can also find information on immigration status on the visas and immigration pages of the GOV.UK website.

Completing and returning your claim form

You will have to fill out the claim form and return it to us with any evidence you need to provide to support your claim.

If you don't provide us with all the evidence we need when you first submit your claim, you must do so within one month. We cannot assess your claim until we have all the evidence we need.

If you need help filling in the form or have any queries about the form or the evidence you need to provide, please contact us using the contact details on this page.

Backdating a claim

You need to make your claim as early as possible to avoid missing housing benefit or council tax support.

To backdate your claim, we must be satisfied that:

• You have a good reason for not claiming earlier
• There was a good reason why you did not claim for the whole period, for which you want to backdate the claim

For example

• If you did not immediately claim benefit after leaving hospital
• If you were ill and had no-one to make a claim on your behalf
• If you have suffered a recent family bereavement

Backdating for pensioners

If you or your partner, is of pensionable age, we can backdate your claim for a maximum of three months.

Backdating for people of working age

If you are not a pensioner, then the person who is making the backdated claim, must do so in writing and sign it.  We can only backdate a claim for a maximum of one month.

What happens if you make a backdated claim

We will consider your claim. The more information and evidence you give to support your claim, the quicker our decision will be. Sometimes we will ask you for more information.

We will write to you with our decision and reasons.

You have the right of appeal against any decision we make.

Claiming in advance

If you know you're moving to a new address, you can claim housing benefit  for up to 13 weeks (17 weeks if you're aged 60 or over) before you move. You will not usually get any money before you move in.

Your responsibilities when making a claim

When you make a claim for housing benefit and council tax support, you have certain responsibilities throughout the lifetime of that claim. Please read these conditions carefully before making your claim.

How we pay you housing benefit

We pay you every two weeks in arrears into your bank account.

Schedule of payments for 2024/25

Period payment covers from	Period payment covers to	Date payment will reach bank account
18 March 2024	31 March 2024	03 April 2024
01 April 2024	14 April 2024	17 April 2024
15 April 2024	28 April 2024	01 May 2024
29 April 2024	12 May 2024	15 May 2024
13 May 2024	26 May 2024	29 May 2024
27 May 2024	09 June 2024	12 June 2024
10 June 2024	23 June 2024	26 June 2024
24 June 2024	07 July 2024	10 July 2024
08 July 2024	21 July 2024	24 July 2024
22 July 2024	04 August 2024	07 August 2024
05 August 2024	18 August 2024	21 August 2024
19 August 2024	01 September 2024	04 September 2024
02 September 2024	15 September 2024	18 September 2024
16 September 2024	29 September 2024	02 October 2024
30 September 2024	13 October 2024	16 October 2024
14 October 2024	27 October 2024	30 October 2024
28 October 2024	10 November 2024	13 November 2024
11 November 2024	24 November 2024	27 November 2024
25 November 2024	08 December 2024	11 December 2024
09 December 2024	22 December 2024	24 December 2024
23 December 2024	05 January 2025	08 January 2025
06 January 2025	19 January 2025	22 January 2025
20 January 2025	02 February 2025	05 February 2025
03 February 2025	16 February 2025	19 February 2025
17 February 2025	02 March 2025	05 March 2025
03 March 2025	16 March 2025	19 March 2024
17 March 2025	30 March 2025	02 April 2025

You can also read the 2024/25 payment schedule in Nepali.

If we pay your landlord direct, we pay every four weeks in arrears.

If you do not have a bank account, we may be able to make payments to a friend or relative. We cannot make payments into a Post Office account that your other benefits are paid into.

If you want to change the account we pay your money into, you will need to complete the data Change the account your money is paid into form and return it to us.

How we pay you council tax support

If you are entitled to help, we will pay the council tax support directly onto your council tax account for the whole year. This means you will get a reduced council tax bill.  It will show on your bill as council tax support.

Reviewing your claim

To reduce the risk of fraud and error in the benefits system, we will regularly review your benefit claim to make sure that you are getting the right benefit.

We will select claims for review throughout the year with the aim of identifying undeclared changes in circumstances, such as unreported increases in income or savings and changes to the household such as people moving in or out.

Please do not wait for us to review your claim to tell us about a relevant change.  You may be running up a large overpayment that you will have to pay back later, or you could be missing out on support you are entitled to.

All claims will be subject to a review. We could review your claim in a number of ways:

• Visit review - reviews carried out in your home
• Telephone reviews - we will phone you to go through your details
• Postal reviews - we will send you a form to complete and return to us
• Office reviews - we will ask you to come into our offices and review your claim there

Remember, we will apply any unreported changes in your circumstances that lead to you getting less benefit from the date the change happened. This may end up in a large overpayment, which you will have to pay back.

If we find a change that  is beneficial to you, we will only be able to award extra benefit from the Monday after you provide us with the information and evidence of the change. This means that by not telling us about a change you could miss out on extra benefit.

If we cannot complete the review because we have not been able to contact you, or you have not responded to our letters, we will suspend your claim.

Please get in touch using the contact details on this page if you have any questions about your claim.