Claim Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support

Information about Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit can help you pay your rent if you’re unemployed, on a low income or claiming benefits.

Criteria for claiming Housing Benefit

You can only claim Housing Benefit if you meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • You live in temporary or specified accommodation
  • You're single and over state pension credit age, or are part of a couple who are both over state pension credit age

If you don't meet the criteria for Housing Benefit, you'll need to claim Universal Credit instead. Find out how to apply for Universal Credit

What you'll get

Housing Benefit is means-tested to decide how much you get. We'll take into account how much income you and your partner earn, if you've any savings and whether you've any spare rooms.

You'll get help with all or part of your rent depending on your circumstances.

This is known as the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate. View LHA rate for the borough

View your Housing Benefit claim and payments

You can sign in to MyAccount to view your Housing Benefit award, view your payment schedule, see any previous payments made to you, report changes, sign up for email notifications and see if you've any overpayments outstanding.

To view your benefit claim:

  1. Sign in or register for MyAccount using the link below.
  2. Add your benefits account, if you haven't done so already. You'll need your 9-digit benefits reference number which you can find on your notification letters. You'll also need to answer a few security questions.
  3. From your online benefits account, follow the link to view your benefit payments.

Sign in or register for MyAccount to view your benefit claim

Backdating your claim

Your benefit will usually start from the Monday after you apply.

We can backdate your claim for one month if you can give a good reason why you didn't apply earlier. For example, you were too ill before you claimed.

If you're over the qualifying age for state pension credit, you can have your claim backdated for up to 3 months without having to give a good reason for claiming late.

Ask us to backdate your benefit