Claiming Benefits
HOUSING AND COUNCIL TAX BENEFIT
The Local Authority administers Housing and Council
Tax Benefit on behalf of the government. This includes:
Housing Benefit - help with your rent.
Housing Benefit is a means tested benefit payable to people on a
low income who are liable to pay rent for accomodation they are
occupying as their home.
Council Tax Benefit - help with your
Council Tax. Council Tax Benefit is payable to people on a low
income who are liable to pay Council Tax on the property they live
in, whether it is rented or owned . It is also a means tested
benefit.
Second Adult rebate - help with your
Council Tax. If you do not qualify for Council
Tax Benefit because your income is too high, you may still
qualify for a 25 percent reduction in your Council Tax bill if
there are other people living with you who have a low
income.
The pages claiming Housing Benefit and claiming
Council Tax Benefit explain the circumstances in which you may
be entitled to these benefits
The easiest and quickest way to make a new claim for
Housing and Council Tax Benefit is to complete our online
form.
In all cases you should claim as soon as you think you need to,
as Housing and Council Tax Benefit will normally only be awarded
from the Monday after we receive your form.
If you do not submit your form to us straight away –
perhaps, for example, because you have been unwell - you can ask us
to consider backdating the start of your claim
to a date earlier than the date we received it. You will
have to prove good cause for your failure to claim when you first
needed the help. The maximum amount of time that a claim can be
considered for backdating is six months for working age
claimants and three months for Pension age
claimants.
You can estimate your entitlement to
benefit online
Further information:
Contact
us or via e-mail on benefit.services@ashford.gov.uk
For public service information on Benefits from the
Government visit the
Directgov website.
This webpage was updated on
1/11/2012