Apply for Housing Benefit

You can view and check your Housing Benefit on our online portal.

 

Housing Benefit is help that you can receive towards your rent.

It’s being replaced by Universal Credit for most working age people.

You should use a benefits calculator to check if you can get a Housing Benefit. This will tell you about other benefits and support you may be entitled to.

 

Who can apply

Most working age people can no longer claim housing benefit and should go to GOV.UK to apply for Universal Credit.  

You can only make a new claim if:

• you and your partner are state pension age
• you live in supported accommodation provided by a housing association, a registered charity or a not-for-profit voluntary organisation
• you live in temporary accommodation provided by Redbridge council. This can be in Redbridge or outside the borough

You cannot claim if you and/or your partner:

• have more than £16,000 savings
• are a full-time student unless you are any of the following:
  • disabled
  • a single parent
  • a couple with children and one of you is a student. The person who is not a  student will need to apply
• do not pay rent at the property you live in
• are seeking asylum or have no recourse to public funds
• are living in the UK under a sponsorship agreement

We’ll check if you’re entitled to Council Tax Reduction when you apply for Housing Benefit.

 

Ask for your claim to be backdated

You can ask us to pay your benefits from an earlier date. This is called backdating. 

You must have good reason for not applying straight away .

If you’re working age, your Housing Benefit can be backdated for one month.

If you’re pension age, your Housing Benefit can be backdated up to three months.

You can request this when you apply for your Housing Benefit. If you’ve already submitted your application you’ll need to contact us.

 

How to apply

You’ll need to provide different types of evidence depending on your situation. This could include evidence of:

• you and your partners identity such as a passport, driving licence or birth certificate
• you and your partners national insurance number 
• rent that you pay for your property
• you and your partners earnings
• you and your partners bank accounts 
• benefits, allowances or pensions for you, your partner and any other adults living with you
• any other income for you, your partner and any other adults living with you

Make sure you have all the information you need before you start. 

You can add your evidence when you apply online. 

Apply for Housing Benefit

 

Return to a claim you have started

You can save your application and come back to it later. You have 14 days to complete this.

To go back to your claim you’ll need: 

• your surname 
• your national insurance number 
• a citizens access benefits key. This will have been emailed to you when you saved your application
• answers to the three security questions set up when you saved your application

 

What happens next?

If you’re unable to upload your evidence when you submitted your application, you can do this using our online form as soon as possible.

Provide evidence to support your benefit claim

You have one month to provide the evidence requested, so that your claim can be processed. We’ll not send you a reminder.  

If we need any more information, we’ll let you know.

We’ll write to you as soon as possible with our decision.

 

 

Appeal a housing benefit decision

If you don’t understand or disagree with our decision you can:

• ask us to explain our decision in more detail
• ask us to reconsider our decision
• appeal the decision

See appeal a housing benefit decision