How long is Housing and Council Tax Benefit paid for?
The length of time your claim will be paid depends on your circumstances. Once an award is made, there is no fixed time limit to the award. The amount of the award may go up or down if there is a change of circumstances. Otherwise benefit simply continues until you stop being entitled or fail to respond to a request for information or evidence and the award is ended.
How will my Housing and Council Tax Benefit be paid?
Your Council Tax Benefit will be sent directly to your Council Tax account. You will then receive a bill showing you any outstanding money you need to pay.
If you are a Council Tenant your Housing Benefit will be sent directly to your rent account on a weekly basis.
If you are a Private Tenant, in most circumstances, we will pay Housing Benefit directly to you fortnightly by BACS transfer into your bank or building society account. If we pay your landlord, we will pay them every four weeks by BACS transfer into their bank or building society account.
How will you get an overpayment back?
If we have paid you too much benefit and you are still entitled to some benefit, we will recover the overpayment from your ongoing entitlement. Our standard rate of recovery is £9.90 a week. If you find that this amount causes you financial hardship we may be able to reduce it. You can write to the Control Team who will decide whether the rate can be lowered. You may be asked to fill in a form giving details of your income and expenditure.
If you are not entitled to any more Housing Benefit we will ask you to pay the money back to us. We will send you an invoice.
There are no payment facilities at the Town Hall. Instead you can pay by Girobank at the Post Office. All Housing Benefit Overpayment invoices have a bar code to enable you to pay it in full at any Post Office. You simply hand over your cash or cheque (made payable to 'Post Office Counters Limited') to the cashier at the Post Office, together with your invoice. Tell the cashier how much you are paying and you will be given a receipt. Your payment will then be credited to your Housing Benefit invoice account overnight. There will be no charge to you for this service.
If you are unable to pay back the total overpayment in one payment, instalments can be arranged in special circumstances. A request must be made in writing to the Control Team, giving your reasons. You may be asked to fill in a form giving details of your income and expenditure. If the Control Team agrees to your request to make payments by instalments, a payment card will be issued (coded green), which will relate to that invoice number only.
Other methods of payment are also available to you:
- By Post - please make cheques payable to 'Darlington Borough Council'.
- By debit or credit card - please phone 01325 389898.
- Online Payment
- Payments can also be made at the Dolphin Centre out of Post Office hours only.
Full details are available on the back of your invoice.
Will you keep the information I give you confidential?
We will use the information you give us on your claim form, and in any proof you send us, to work out your claim for Housing and Council Tax Benefit.
We may pass the information to other agencies or organisations such as the Department for Work and Pensions and the Inland Revenue, as allowed by the law. We may check the information you have given, or information given about you by someone else, against other information we already have. We may also ask other agencies, organisations, local authorities or government departments to give us information they have about you.
We will not give information about you to anyone else, or use the information about you for other purposes. If you want us to talk to someone other than yourself about your claim then you will need to write to us giving your permission.
How much will you deduct from my claim for having a non-dependant living with me?
Non-dependant deductions may be made from your benefit for any adults living in your household. The deductions are set down in law and have to be applied whether or not the adult concerned actually contributes to your household.
The amount of the deduction depends on the income of the non-dependant.
| Non-dependants in remunerative work with gross income of: |
Deduction from HB |
Deduction from CTB |
| £382.00 each week or more |
£47.75 |
£6.95 |
| Between £306.00 and £381.99 each week |
£43.50 |
£5.80 |
| Between £231.00 and £305.99 each week |
£38.20 |
£4.60 |
| Between £178.00 and £230.99 each week |
£23.35 |
£4.60 |
| Between £120.00 and £177.99 each week |
£17.00 |
£2.30 |
| Under £120.00 each week |
£7.40 |
£2.30 |
| Non-dependants not in remunerative work (regardless of the income level) |
£7.40 |
£2.30 |
Non-dependant deductions will not be made in the following circumstances:
- If the non-dependant is under 18
- For Council Tax Benefit if the non-dependant is receiving Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance (income based)
- For Housing Benefit if the non-dependant is under 25 and receiving Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance (income based)
- If the non-dependant is receiving Pension Credit.
- If the claimant or partner are in receipt of the care component of Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance.
- If the claimant or partner is registered blind.
What happens when I start a job?
If you or your partner find a job, you must tell us straight away. If you delay in telling us, you may be responsible for any overpayment.
Once you have started work your Housing and Council Tax Benefit may stop, but you may still be entitled to Housing and Council Tax Benefit if you are on a low income. All you need to do is to provide us with proof of your new income and we will work out if you are still entitled to Housing and Council Tax Benefit.
If you have been receiving Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance (income based) or Incapacity Benefit continuously for more than 26 weeks you may be entitled to receive an extended payment of Housing and Council Tax Benefit. This means that you would continue to receive the same amount of benefit for 4 weeks after your circumstances changed. You will need to contact the Department for Work and Pensions to see if you are entitled
At the end of the four week extended payment your Housing and Council Tax Benefit will stop. However, you may still be entitled to Housing and Council Tax Benefit if you are on a low income. In this situation you will need to complete a new Housing Benefit form and provide proof of your income, we will work out if you are still entitled to Housing and Council Tax Benefit.
Can I still get Housing Benefit if I go into prison?
Claimants who are in prison on remand and have not yet been sentenced can receive Housing Benefit for their normal home, for up to 52 weeks.
Once the claimant has been sentenced, the relevant question is will they return home within a total of 13 weeks of when they left home. This includes the remand period and the sentence period. Only if the answer to this question is 'Yes' can the claimant continue to get Housing Benefit under the temporary absence rules.
We have to take into account any remission the prisoner may get for good behaviour, and generally with sentences of up to six months, the prisoner is likely to be entitled, but we need to count the remand period as well so it may depend how long that was for.
Prisoners may also qualify for Housing Benefit if they are required to give a four week notice period, to end their tenancy.