Apply for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support Online
If you are on a low income you may be entitled to claim Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support. Housing Benefit can help you to pay for part or all of your rent.
To claim Housing Benefit you must:
- be of state pension age; or
- you live in specified accommodation; or
- you are homeless and the council has placed you in temporary accommodation; or
- you are part of a couple, one of you has reached state pension age and you were in receipt of state pension credit (as a couple) before 15 May 2019.
What you will need to claim Housing Benefit:
- proof of your identity
- proof of your National Insurance Number
- income and savings proof for all relevant household members
- household circumstances
To claim online please use the Online claim
Please note that if you are claiming Council Tax Support only, you can upload the evidence required in support of your claim at the point that you submit the claim online. If you are claiming Housing Benefit, we will need to verify the original documents, so please do not submit the evidence required in support of your claim online. You will need to make alternative arrangements to supply us with them.
You will need to apply for Universal Credit instead of Housing Benefit if you do not meet the above criteria. This must be done online at www.gov.uk/apply-universal-credit. You will still need to make a separate claim to us for Council Tax Support.
To find out if you are entitled to any other benefits please use the Benefit Calculator
To view your benefit claim online you can log into your Self-Serve account.
A fillable form is available in the related documents section below, simply download it, complete it and return it.
Discretionary Housing Payment (PDF) [160KB] can provide extra money to help you meet your housing costs.
This authority is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and to this end may use the information you provide for the prevention and detection of fraud. It may also share this information with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds for these purposes. For further information, click on the link here