Benefits

Housing Benefit is available to those who are on a low income and need help with paying rent on their home - Council Tax Benefit is available to those who need help towards their Council Tax bill.

Further information on how to make your claim and other areas such as appeals, overpayments etc using the link below

Further information on how to make your claim

You no longer need to fill in a long and complicated paper claim form. We have a dedicated team of Benefit Advisors who can speak to you about making a claim and it can be completed over the phone. If you want to know more, click on the phone

Employment and Support Allowance came into effect on 27.10.08., and is a replacement for Incapacity Benefit. Now, if you wish to make a claim through the Jobcentre based on the ...

More information on Employment and Support Allowance

Changes in how much of your Child Maintenance we take into account

From 27.10.08. we will disregard in full any amount of Child Maintenance you receive.

This means that if you receive Child Maintenance, the amount that you get every week will not ... Further information child maintenance changes

For a rough guide to how much Benefit you could be entitled to, try the Benefit Calculator.

Benefit Calculator

The Housing Benefit service aims to process all properly completed claims forms (with associated evidence)as quickly as possible.

These measures indicate the level of performance a customer can expect on things such as speed of proceesing ... More information on our performance

We:

help our customers claim the benefits they are entitled to;

provide a same day service for our customers. This means that if our customers bring in all that is required we will process their claim on the day;

will visit our customers where necessary to ensure that they are receiving the correct benefit;

will provide private interview facilities where possible and if required.

The Government is changing Housing Benefit to make it fairer and easier to use

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is a new way of working out Housing Benefit for some tenants on a low income living in private rented accommodation........

Find out more about Local Housing Allowance

The Council has the duty by law to administer a benefits service to those within its area who qualify. We also have a responsibility to ensure that payments are made only to those who are actually entitled to receive them.

For that reason, we have our own Fraud section whose duties include:

• detecting fraudulent claims;
• stopping and reducing payment in fraudulent cases; and
• proactive fraud drives.

Report a Fraud

Types of Fraud

For details concerning Landlords and their tenants claim for Housing Benefit as well as information and Newsletters please click on the link below...

Landlord Information

If So You Need To Know About Important Changes.

Following new legislation changes have been made to the way Housing and Council Tax Benefit is administered.

For details ... Further details

Claiming or want to claim Housing or Council Tax Benefit?

If you are a Midsummer Housing Association or Places for People tenant you can, if you prefer, take your application form to your landlords local office, where.....
Housing Association details

Where and how to find more information on benefits e.g Department for Work and Pensions, The Rent Service, Inland Revenue etc.

Other Contacts