What is Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support?
Housing benefit and council tax benefit are means tested benefits, which help people on low incomes pay their rent and council tax. Certain people cannot claim.
Who can claim
You can claim if you are:
- working
- unemployed
- receiving benefits
- self-employed
- pensioner.
What is housing benefit?
You can claim housing benefit if you pay your rent to the council, a housing association or to a private landlord. Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is the name for Housing Benefit for most tenants of private landlords who claim after 7 April 2008
If you are charged council tax you can claim council tax benefit. If you pay your rent to the council, housing benefit is called a rent rebate. It is called rent allowance if you pay your rent to a housing association or a private landlord. How to claim
What is council tax benefit?
Council tax benefit must be claimed by the person who is resident and is liable to pay the council tax for the property. There are two types of council tax benefit.
The first type of council tax benefit, is known as main council tax benefit, and has rules similar to housing benefit.
The second type of council tax benefit is second adult rebate. You can claim this benefit if you are the only person liable to pay the council tax and you have one or more adults (not your partner or tenant) living with you and they have a low income. How to claim.
The maximum second adult rebate you can receive is 25 per cent of the council tax. We do not need to know about your income or savings. However we will need to see evidence of the income and savings of the other adults in the household.
When you claim council tax benefit we will work out both types and award you which gives you more council tax benefit
Whichever type of council tax benefit you are awarded we will use it to reduce your council tax bill.