Benefits explained

Claimants must:

• Resident in the property
• Occupy the property as your home
• Be required to pay rent and/or Council Tax for the property.

Single full time students or couples who are both students do not qualify unless they or their partner are disabled, or have dependent children. However non-student partners of a student can make a claim. You will not be entitled to Housing Benefit if you live with a close relative in the same household even though you may pay them rent.

There could be many reasons for this. For example, because of the level of your income, you don't qualify for maximum Housing Benefit, and are expected to pay some of the rent from your own income. It could be because there is someone else in your household with their own source of income, who is expected to contribute to the rent. For information about your particular claim, contact the Benefit Team on 0800 901057.

We normally pay Housing Benefit four weekly or monthly in arrears. You should receive a cheque at the end of every fourth week or end of the month.

Alternatively, if you want your payment paid directly into your bank account, you can email or write direct to the Revenues and Benefits Team, or complete a Change In Circumstances form which you can download on the Change of circumstances - housing benefit and council tax web page with the account details.

If the Council is paying your Housing Benefit direct to your landlord, it's normally paid four weekly or monthly in arrears. We'll send your landlord a schedule confirming what period each Housing Benefit payment covers.

The main Revenues and Benefits team is in William Patrick Library, Kirkintilloch. You can also obtain assistance at the Community Hub, based within the William Patrick Library. You can also hand in forms and other documents at any Community Hub.

The Housing Benefit Regulations say that only certain groups of students are entitled to Housing Benefit. These are:

• Part-Time Students. A student is normally considered to be part-time if their class and structured learning time totals less than 16 hours per week.
• Students who qualify for a State Retirement Pension.
• Students who live with a partner that is not a student. Please note that the non-student should make the claim for Housing Benefit, with the student detailed in the form as 'your partner'.
• Students under 21 years of age and not in Higher Education. This covers students in “further education” IF they started their course before they were 19 years of age.
• Students under the age of 20 for whom child benefit is still payable.
• Students with responsibility for a child or young person, including:
  • Lone parents
  • Couples with children where both members of the couple are students
  • Single students with the responsibility for a foster child
  • Disabled Students
  • Students receiving Income Support, Income Related Employment and Support Allowance or Job Seekers Allowance Income Based
  • Intercalating Students. These are students that have ceased to attend their course with the consent of the educational establishment, and who satisfy the qualifying conditions.

Please contact the Revenues and Benefits Team on 0800 901057 to find out more information, or to report a change in your circumstances.

Any person affected can disagree with a decision. These include:

• You (the person making the claim)
• Someone authorised to act on your behalf
• Your landlord or their agent - but only in matters relating to who we pay benefit to
• Anyone, including a landlord, we ask to pay back benefit we have overpaid.

Further details are given in the Housing and Council Tax Benefit Dispute form which you can download from the Benefits Explained web page.

As part of the Welfare Reform Act, from 1 April 2013 the Government changed the way that Housing Benefit is assessed for claimants who are of working age and are tenants of Councils, Housing Associations or other Registered Social Landlords. Claimants now have Housing Benefit assessments based on the number of bedrooms that their household is allowed.

If you are under Pension age and live in a property that has more bedrooms than the Government says you need then your Housing Benefit will be reduced. East Dunbartonshire Council has no discretion to change these rules.

Tenants are entitled to one bedroom for:

• Every adult couple (couples aged 16 or over that are married, in a civil partnership, or living together)
• Any other adult (an adult is a person aged 16 or over)
• Any two children of the same sex under the age of 16
• Any two children, regardless of their sex, under the age of 10
• Any other child (a child is a person under the age of 16)
• A non-resident carer when the claimant and/or their partner is a person who requires overnight care (conditions apply).

Housing Benefit rules may be changing for households where a child cannot share a bedroom due to a severe disability. If you have a child that cannot share a bedroom due to medical reasons then please contact the Revenues and Benefits Team for advice.

Adult children who are in the Armed Forces (but continue to live with parents) will be treated as continuing to live at home, even when deployed on operations. This will continue to be the case so long as they intend to return home.

If you live in a property with one bedroom over your household allowance then your Housing Benefit will be based on 86% of your eligible rent – a 14% reduction.

If you live in a property with two or more bedrooms over your household allowance then your Housing Benefit will be based on 75% of your eligible rent – a 25% reduction.

Examples

• Jenny lives alone in a two bedroom Council property and receives Income Support. Her rent is £75.00 per week. As Jenny has one bedroom over her household allowance, the most Housing Benefit she can receive is reduced by 14% to £64.50. This means that Jenny has to pay £10.50 from her Income Support to her landlord.
• Samuel is 76 and lives alone in a two bedroom Housing Association property. His rent is £80.00 per week. As Samuel is over Pension age he is not affected by this change.
• Martin and Paula are a couple and live in a three bedroom Housing Association property with their son aged six and daughter aged two. Their rent is £70.00 per week. As they have one bedroom over their household allowance, their Housing Benefit will be reduced by 14%. This means that the most Housing Benefit they can receive is £60.20 per week and Martin and Paula would have to pay the £9.80 difference from the income that they have to their landlord.

If parents do not live together and share care of their child/children then only one of the parents can have the child counted in their bedroom allowance. The child/children will be treated as living with the person that is deemed to be their main carer. If care is split equally then the child/children will be treated as living with the person that receives Child Benefit for them.

People who are approved foster carers will be allowed an additional room, whether or not a child has been placed with them or they are between placements - ONLY if they:

• Have fostered a child in the last 12 months
• Have become an approved foster carer in the last 12 months.

You can make an application for Discretionary Housing Payments to help with the difference between your Housing Benefit award and your rent charge. An Application for Discretionary Housing Payment can be found on the Discretionary Housing Payment Fund web page.

Other options you may wish to consider are:

• Moving to a more suitable property
• Asking other residents, for example grown up children, to contribute more money
• Contacting your landlord to see if there is any help they can give you
• Increasing your hours of work, or taking a job
• Taking in a lodger to help with rent costs – this may affect any benefits you receive so please contact the Revenues and Benefits Team for advice.

For more information about these changes, please contact the Revenues and Benefits Team using the contact details below, or by calling in to the Hub at the William Patrick Library.

East Dunbartonshire Council
Revenues and Benefits Team
Revenue Services
William Patrick Library
2/4 West High Street
Kirkintilloch
G66 1AD

Opening times:
Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm
Tel: 0800 901057
Email:benefits@eastdunbarton.gov.uk

If you need advice about paying your rent or your housing options then please contact your landlord. The phone number for some local landlords are given below.

If you want help and advice regarding managing your money, or want to speak to someone independent of the Council regarding these changes then please contact

Citizens’Advice Bureau -
11 Alexandra Street, Kirkintilloch,
G66 1HB,

Tel. 0141 775 3220 or Money Advice Service 0300 500 5000 or visit Money Helper website.

As part of the Welfare Reform Act, from 2013 the Government introduced a cap on the total amount of benefit that working-age people can receive. This is to help ensure that individuals are no longer given more money when they are out of work than what they could reasonably expect to earn from working.

Claimants and their partners will receive letters regarding the cap and will be advised to contact the Department for Work and Pensions about this change.

As the cap is calculated per household, someone not claiming any out of work benefits may receive a letter. This is because their partner or any child they are responsible for receives out of work benefits. Alternatively, if the household receives only Housing Benefit this income may mean they reach the cap.

Local Authorities receive notification when residents are affected. Councils will be responsible for applying the cap to Housing Benefit awards until the claimant receives Universal Credit. Claimants can apply for Discretionary Housing Payment if they need help to pay their rent.

If claimants, their partner or any child dependent upon them receive any of the following then that household will be exempt from the benefit cap:

• Attendance Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Disability Living Allowance
• Guardian’s Allowance
• Industrial Injuries Benefits
• Personal Independence Payment
• Support component of Employment & Support Allowance
• War Widows/Widowers Pension
• Working Tax Credit
• People in work for 1 year before claiming (up to 39 weeks).

Exceptions will be made for those living in ‘supported accommodation’ (for example, tenants of Women's Aid).

If someone works sufficient hours to qualify for WTC but their earnings are too high to qualify for any payment of WTC then they will still be exempt from the cap.

The benefits that will be taken into account when calculating the cap are:

• Bereavement Allowance/ Widowed Parent’s/Mother’s Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Child Benefit
• Child Tax Credit
• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) (contribution-based and income-related - except where the Support Component has been awarded)
• Guardian’s Allowance
• Housing Benefit
• Incapacity Benefit
• Income Support
• Job Seekers Allowance (Income & Contributions Based)
• Maternity Allowance
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• Widow’s Pension.

• Bereavement Payment
• Council Tax Reduction
• Discretionary Housing Payments
• Non-dependants’ income
• Social Fund payments – all one off payments (budgeting loans, cold weather payments, funeral payments, sure start maternity grants)
• Pension Credit
• Residency order payments
• Statutory Adoption/Maternity/Paternity/Sick Pay (when these are paid by employers)
• Winter Fuel Payment.

Benefits Cap calculators can be found on the Government Website and this can be used by claimants/local authorities.