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Answers to the most popular Housing Benefit questions
For further information, please contact the Housing Benefit team:
E-mail: hbsupportteam@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
You can now contact us online.
Tel: 023 9283 4556
Housing Benefit is to help certain people on a low income who pay rent for where they live. Housing benefit is a means-tested benefit.
You can claim Housing benefit if:
Some people aren’t eligible for Housing Benefit. You are not eligible if:
Let us know as soon as you can that you intend to make a claim, because housing benefit is considered from the day we receive your initial phone call, email or letter. All you need to tell us at this stage is your name, contact details and national insurance number.
Then you’ll need to complete our online form, provide supporting evidence. If you’re claiming council tax support as well as Housing Benefit, you can do this on the same Housing Benefit and council tax support form.
The forms are also available from one of our Housing Offices listed on the contact us page. If you’d like some help filling in the form, contact the Housing Benefit Support Team. All questions relating to your housing benefit and council tax support claim should be answered truthfully. Fraud occurs when a person gets more housing benefit than they are entitled to by knowingly withholding or falsifying information related to their claim.
It is a means-tested benefit, which means that how much you get depends on your income and circumstances, who lives with you, any other benefits you receive and any savings you have. If you have a partner, your combined income and savings will be taken into account.
Housing Benefit should pay for part or all your rent, not for other costs, for example fuel or meals. Any adults living with you can affect how much Housing Benefit you receive.
More information on local housing allowance and changes to housing benefits can be found on our Local Housing Allowance FAQs page.
On average it takes 28 days to assess a claim for Housing Benefit. It can take up to a further seven days for you to receive your first Housing Benefit payment.
It will take longer if you haven’t included all the supporting evidence we asked for, or if we need to contact you again to provide more evidence.
If you have an outstanding claim and are experiencing difficulties with your tenancy follow the link to the Housing Benefit team on the contact us page.
The Housing Benefit application form asks for details of the account you want to use. You can write to ask that your Housing Benefit be paid direct to your landlord every four weeks in arrears.
If you’re living in the property, Housing Benefit is usually paid from the Monday after the claim form is received. If we receive the claim form the same week the tenancy starts, we’ll pay Housing Benefit from the start of the tenancy. It’s only ever paid before you move into a property in exceptional circumstances, for example if you can’t move in because the new home is being adapted to meet the specific needs of a disabled family member.
If you’re unhappy with the outcome of your Housing Benefit claim decision, you may be able to ask for the decision to be reviewed. For more information read Housing Benefit appeals procedure.
If you or your partner are of qualifying age for pension credit, you don’t need to ask for your Housing Benefit to be backdated, it is automatically paid retrospectively for a maximum of three months prior to the date you make your claim, subject to meeting the income and capital criteria.
If you are of working age, you can request a claim be backdated for maximum of six months from the date we receive your request. We must be satisfied with the reasons you give for not claiming earlier, and satisfied that these reasons existed for the whole period for which backdating is requested. These reasons are known as ‘good cause’. It’s up to you to prove ‘good cause’, which means that any reasonable person of your age, experience or circumstances would also have failed to claim benefit.
Some examples of ‘good cause’ are if you:
The more information and evidence you give in support of your claim the quicker a decision can be made. Sometimes we may need to write to you for more information or evidence, or ask you to come in to discuss your claim in more detail.
We’ll write to let you know our decision. If we decide that we cannot backdate your claim, we’ll explain the reasons in the letter. You have the right to appeal against a decision not to backdate your claim.
There are several ways you can pay back overpaid Housing Benefit:
Fraud occurs when a person gets more housing benefit than they are entitled to, by knowingly withholding or falsifying information related to their claim, such as not telling us about savings or money you or your partner have coming in, or failing to declare a non-dependant or partner living in your household.
Our counter fraud team may recover the money from you.
A direct earnings attachment is a method of debt recovery used by councils in relation to housing benefit overpayments. Using this method, employers are required to pay amounts from the salary of their employees to the council to reduce or clear the debt.
Advice for employers can be found in the employers guide to direct earnings attachments which explains:
A payment schedule must be completed and sent to the council to give details of the amounts deducted from the employee’s wages. The completed schedule must be attached to any cheque payments or sent in separately when payments are made by BACS.
The full procedure is explained in the employers guide, but it is not intended to be a full description or statement of the law.
To see legislation for employers regarding direct earnings attachments, visit the official legislation website.
If you are an employer and have any questions not answered in the guide, please phone us on 023 9284 1643.
It depends whether your carer is resident or non-resident. To find out more about how your Housing Benefit is affected by a non-resident carer, visit our Housing Benefit – Carers page, or contact us to discuss your particular situation.
Housing Benefit is usually paid for the accommodation you live in. If you are temporarily away from your home, Housing Benefit can sometimes still be paid, but only in certain circumstances. To find out more about temporary absences, visit our Housing Benefit – temporary absences page.
If you move from one home to another, rent might be payable on both houses at the same time. You may be able to claim Housing Benefit for both homes for a maximum of four weeks if:
If you need to apply for Housing Benefit on two homes, use the online contact form to tell us about your change in circumstance.
Changes to the number of people in your household may affect the number of bedrooms you need, which in turn affects the local housing allowance applicable to you. Changes which can affect your local housing allowance are, for example, a young person reaching the age of 16 or a child reaching the age of 10, or if there is a substantial change or improvement to the condition of your property.