Benefits & Entitlements

Cold Weather Payments - latest information

The Benefit Service is responsible for administering the Housing and Council Tax Benefits scheme for the people of Charnwood.
Our aim is to:

Give clear helpful advice about claiming Housing and Council Tax Benefit

• Provide prompt and accurate responses to all enquiries
• Provide a friendly service
• Pay benefit promptly and accurately

Please note that we are legally required to pass details of benefit payments to HMRC annually.

If you have any questions or queries not answered by the information within these pages, please don't hesitate to contact the benefits Service.

Most Popular Benefits Tasks

Below is a list of the most popular Benefits tasks. Apply for housing and council tax benefit Calculate how much housing and council tax benefit you could get online Calculate your local housing allowance rate Paying back a housing benefit overpayments Report suspected benefit fraud

Changes in Legislationin January 2012

Single and under 35?

The Government is planning to extend the age group for single young people who can only claim a shared accommodation rate to help with their rent (rather than being able to claim for self-contained one-bedroom accommodation).

This means you may only be entitled to the lower rate of housing benefit for a room in shared accommodation if all of the following apply:

•  you are a single person
• you are occupying one bedroom self-contained accommodation in the private rented sector
• your Housing Benefit is due to be reviewed from January 2012 onwards
• at the date of the review you will be aged 25 or over but under 35 years, and
• you are not covered by any of the exemptions on sharing accommodation.

The change means that from January 2012 onwards, instead of the one bedroom self-contained rate as has been notified to you, you would move onto the shared accommodation rate applying at that date, which may be much lower. The details of the change will not be known until they are agreed in Parliament later this year. Even when this happens, we will not be able to tell you the exact LHA rate for shared accommodation as these change from month to month. However the current shared accommodation rate for property in your area is £58 per week which will give you an indication of the likely rate next year.

Further information about these changes and the current shared accommodation rates in different parts of the country is available at the Directgov  website (www.direct.gov.uk) under Local Housing Allowance. These rates are shown as the ‘1 Bedroom with shared facilities’ rates, but are only relevant to those who are assessed under the Local Housing Allowance rules. 

 Will this affect me?

Yes, if you are renting a property from a private landlord and receiving Local Housing Allowance and you made your claim for your current address on or after 7 April 2008 (when Local Housing Allowance was introduced).

When will the changes affect me?

If you are already getting Housing Benefit you will have been told of the changes to the Local Housing Allowance rates from April 2011. You will have been given nine months protection from these changes. You will not be affected by the change to the shared accommodation rate until the nine months has ended.

The nine months start from when your local authority carries out your first Housing Benefit yearly assessment after 1 April 2011. For example, if your yearly review was in June 2011 the change to the shared accommodation rate will not affect you until March 2012 (nine months later).

If you make a new claim for Housing Benefit before 1 January 2012, the change will affect you from your next yearly review. This will also happen if your Housing Benefit is not worked out using the Local Housing Allowance arrangements because you have been claiming Housing Benefit from before April 2008.

If you live in a privately rented home and make a new claim for Housing Benefit from 1 January 2012, the change will affect you straightaway.

Important

If you are getting or thinking of claiming Local Housing Allowance, you need to consider these changes before you renew or make a new tenancy agreement with a private landlord. 

Many people are still not receiving the help that they are entitled to. You can use our Web Benefits Calculator to get an estimate of what you could be entitled to.

For more information please visit: www.direct.gov.uk

Information

• Housing Benefit
• Council Tax Benefit and Second Adult Rebate
• Useful Links For Other Benefits and Entitlements
• How to contact Benefits Services
• Entitlements for older people
• Council Tax Charges
• Local Housing Allowance

We have set ‘Service Standards’ for a range of the services we provide. These are designed to advise you of the service you can expect from us and we hope you find them useful.