To work out your Benefit the council will look at:

• Housing Costs - Your rent and/or Council Tax charges.
• Income - Money that you and your partner have coming in, including earnings, some benefits and tax credits and things like occupational pensions, your savings and your partners savings, this also includes such things as stocks and shares and property, as well as bank or building society accounts.
• Needs - Your circumstances, such as your age, the ages and size of your family and whether you or any of your family are disabled.
• Non-Dependants - whether anyone who lives with you could help with the rent.

You can get an indication of the amount of benefit you may be entitled to by using our benefits calculator.

Housing Costs

The most Housing Benefit you can get is the same as your eligible rent. This may not be the same as your full rent.

If you are a private tenant, details of your rent and accommodation are sent to The Rent Service, they are a separate agency. One of their functions is to decide if the rent you are being charged is a reasonable market rent. If the rent is too high or your accommodation is too big for your family, it is unlikely that you will get the full amount that you have to pay your landlord or landlady.

The council will look at:

• The amount of rent is reasonable for your particular home
• Your home is a reasonable size for you and your family
• The amount of rent is reasonable for the area your home is in

For more information please see the question How much rent will you use to work out my Housing Benefit?

Income

If you do not receive Income Support, income based Jobseeker's Allowance or Pension Credit we have to compare the money you have coming in (your income) to your needs. Your income will include an assumed income from any capital you have over £3,000 (£6,000 if you or your partner are aged 60 or over). Your needs are worked out using the personal allowances and premiums for the members of your family who live with, and are dependent on you. You cannot get Council Tax Benefit if you (and your partner) have more than £16,000 in savings or capital.

If you are working for an employer you will need to give us five weeks, or two months, wage slips to work out your average earnings. Earnings are worked out after allowing for Income Tax, National Insurance contributions and half of any pension contributions that you make.

All other income is taken into account on a weekly basis, including state benefits, private pensions and maintenance payments. Some types of income are ignored either in full or in part when working out how much we can pay you.

Needs

Personal Allowances These are the allowances set by the government, to be used when calculating benefit entitlement. They are meant to reflect how much money a person needs to live on per week. They vary depending on the circumstances of the person claiming, the size and circumstances or their family if they have one.

Non-Dependants

You may get less Benefit because of people living with you. These could be:

• Children who have left school
• Relatives
• Friends

These people are called non-dependants. If they are over 18, the Government expects them to pay a share of your housing costs. It lays down set amounts, which we must take off your Benefit. This deduction is based on the non-dependants gross weekly income (pay before stoppages plus any other income including benefits). You must let us know if there are any non-dependants living with you.

Benefits Calculator

You can get an indication of the amount of benefit you may be entitled to by using our benefits calculator.

Remember though that this is an estimate and that the amount calculated is not guaranteed.

Select this link for the Benefits Calculator

If you would like further information about Housing and Council Tax Benefit please see one of the leaflets below. Please click on the right on for your age.

1. Working Age Customers.
2. Pension Age Customers.