Housing Benefit is help to pay rent for people on low incomes who are employed or unemployed.

Who can claim Housing Benefit?  

Universal Credit has replaced Housing Benefit for most new claimants. You can only make a new claim for Housing Benefit if one of the exceptions below applies.  If not, you will have to claim Universal Credit instead and if you are eligible, your housing costs will be included as part of your award.

Exceptions

You can still make a new claim for Housing Benefit if you:

• and your partner (if you have one) have reached state pension age. Check if you are classed as pensioner by using GOV.UK’s state pension age calculator.
• are a mixed aged couple (one of you is pension age but the other is not) and are covered by an exception which enables you to make a new claim. For example, if one of you is getting the Guarantee element of Pension Credit, and have received this continuously since before 15 May 2019. In this situation the older member of the couple needs to be the main claimant for the Housing Benefit claim.
• live in temporary accommodation provided by the Council, in supported accommodation, or in a hostel.

Other eligibility conditions 

You must also meet the following conditions to qaulify: 

• you rent your home
• your income is low enough to satisfy the means test
• your savings or investments are under £16,000 (unless you are also receiving the guarantee element of Pension Credit).   Savings over £6,000 (or £10,000 for pensioners) will affect how much you get.

You can't get Housing Benefit if you own your home, but you may qualify for other financial help.

Existing Housing Benefit claimants

If you already receive Housing Benefit, you can continue to do so until:

• your circumstances change and you need to make a new claim, or
• you are migrated to Universal Credit by the Department for Work and Pensions (this process is expected to be complete by September 2024).

You do not need to start a new claim if you move house and stay in Royal Greenwich - you just need to complete a change of circumstances form.

Once you have claimed Universal Credit, your Housing Benefit claim and any other legacy benefits will end and you will not be able to re-claim in future unless one of the above exceptions apply.

Apply online

Complete the online form to apply for both Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support. Depending on your circumstances, the form will take from 10 minutes up to 45 minutes to complete.

You can save the form at any point before you submit it by noting the reference number and clicking 'Save for later'. You cannot make any changes to the form once it is submitted.

Begin your online application

How much you can get

Use our online benefit calculator to check your entitlement.

The amount you get depends on:

• money that you and your partner have coming in
• your savings and your partner's savings
• any other people you live with
• other circumstances such as your age, ages and size of your family, if anyone in your family is disabled.

Council or housing association tenants

If you're a council or housing association tenant, the amount you get also depends on:

• your eligible rent (this is the amount of rent we use in our assessment)
• if you're under pension age and have spare bedrooms.

Private tenants

If you rent your home from a private landlord, the amount you get depends on the Local Housing Allowance - this may be lower than your actual rent.

Contact the Welfare Rights Service to check how much you can get and for a free benefits check.

You can also visit our benefits pages to see what other support you may be able to get.

What happens next

When you have completed the application form, an evidence checklist will be automatically created and emailed to you. You have one month to provide the evidence requested, so that your claim can be processed.

We may need additional information from you, for example if you are a student. If so, you may need to complete an additional form.

Do not delay submitting your claim form even if you do not have all evidence to support your claim at the time of submission, as you have one month to send it to us and you could miss out on benefit if you wait.

If your application isn't approved, you can appeal the decision.

Backdating your claim

You can ask for your claim to be backdated although you must have a good reason for the request.

Your claim can be backdated for up to one month before the date of your claim unless you've reached the State Pension age in which case it can be backdated for three months.

To request backdating, please provide details in the 'anything else' section on the application form.

If your circumstances change

You must tell us about any changes in your circumstances or any changes in the circumstances of the people who live with you.

If you don't tell us about a change of circumstance or delay telling us, you may end up with an overpayment which you'll need to repay.

COVID19: If your income has recently reduced, please report your change of circumstances ideally via the online form or email. We are receiving a high number of requests at the moment and we will process these as soon as possible. If you have received an acknowledgement after submitting your change of circumstances, there is no need to chase it up.

Data protection

The Royal Borough of Greenwich checks and verifies all information provided in support of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support claims. See our data protection information for details of how we collect and distribute personal information.