Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support

New claims for Housing Benefit will only be accepted for customers who are:

• Pension credit age
• Living in Supported exempt accommodation
• Living in temporary homeless accommodation

Customers who do not meet any of the above criteria will need to make a claim for Universal Credit to receive help for their rent.

Council Tax Support is a local scheme and provides help with your council tax bill by reducing the amount you have to pay, depending on your income.

Help to pay your Council tax is not included in Universal Credit and continues to be provided by Coventry City Council. You must make a separate claim to the Council for this.

How much would I get?

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support are means-tested benefits. The amount you receive can depend on:

• your income;
• your savings;
• the size of the property, the amount of your rent; and
• who else lives with you

You can apply for either Housing Benefit, Council Tax support or both by completing the online claim form. Once you have completed the form you will be given an evidence checklist that lists documents we need to assess your claim.

You can upload the evidence required when you submit your application. Should you need to send further information you can email the evidence to benefits@coventry.gov.uk quoting your reference number in the subject heading, or you can make an appointment so you can in your documents.

Please note all benefit claims may take up to 8 weeks to process, please avoid contacting the team for an update before this time has passed.

You may receive an error message when you have submitted the form, this is a system issue in the background only, and we are receiving all submitted forms. Please do not resubmit further forms or contact us regarding this issue.

This issue is under investigation with our IT department.

Benefits calculator

If you are unsure how much benefit you will receive, or how much money you will have left once you have paid your bills you can use our handy benefits calculator to:

• See how much benefit you might be entitled to
• Help to identify your priority bills and manage your money
• See how changes in your circumstances would affect your income

Make a benefits claim online

Please be advised it may take up to 4 weeks to process your application form, please avoid contacting the team for an update before this time has passed.

View our privacy notice explaining how we will use your information and handle your data.

Support

If you have difficulty completing an online claim, you can call the Benefits Service for assistance.

Benefits service

Telephone: 024 7683 1800