Housing benefit
Report a change
If you receive Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax reduction, you must tell us about any change in your circumstances as it may mean your benefits need to change.
If you do not receive Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax reduction, please visit our Council Tax pages if you need to report any changes that may affect your Council Tax bill.
What changes do I need to tell you about?
By law, you must tell us about changes that could affect your benefits. The following are examples of things you must report to us:
- changes to other benefits such as Job Seeker Allowance, Universal Credit or any other benefits
- changes to who lives with you, for example if someone moves in or out
- any change to income for you or anyone living with you, such as wages or tax credits (when the change starts, stops, goes up or down)
- changes to bank accounts, amount of savings or investments
- if you move or live away from home
- become a student or finish a course
- go in to hospital or prison
- a child leaves education
- you stop getting Child Benefit
- your rent goes up or down.
If you are reporting a death, please use the tell us once service which will notify multiple government organisations for you.
If you're unsure if you need to tell us about a change in your life, let us know and we will let you tell you if this changes your benefits.
If you are self-employed, a taxi driver or a company director you will need to complete a self-employed/director questionnaire.
What happens if I haven't told you?
If we find out about a change in your circumstances that affects your benefits, we may have paid you too much benefit/reduction.
We have to tell you what the right amount is and how much we have overpaid you. A decision will be made whether we ask you to pay it back or what we are going to do about it.
If you don't agree with our decision, you can ask us to look at it again.
