Housing Benefit

• Are you of pension age?
• Do you live in temporary accommodation?
• Do you live in supported accommodation?

If the answer to any of these questions is Yes, you will need to claim Housing Benefit from us.

Please note only one claim is required per household.

Apply for Housing Benefit

Local Housing Allowance Rates

Local Housing Allowance is a way of working out the maximum benefit that might be paid for tenants renting accommodation from a private Landlord.

It only applies to those making claims for Housing Benefit, or those already claiming who move to privately rented accommodation, on or after 7 April 2008.

You can view the Local Housing Allowance rates for the South Hams area and additional information on our Local Housing Allowance Rates page.

Housing Benefit Overpayments

If you have been overpaid Housing Benefit, you may have to repay it.

If you think you're receiving too much Housing Benefit you need to tell us, as you may have to pay it back.

We can recover overpayments by:

• asking your employer to operate a Direct Earnings Attachment (deducting directly from your wages)
• deducting directly from any ongoing benefit entitlement
• deducting directly from other social security benefits
• receiving a payment from you

Pay back an Overpayment

If you are having difficulty repaying an overpayment, please Contact our Housing Benefit Team as soon as possible.

How much of my War Pension is considered in any calculation?

We currently disregard 100% of War Disablement and War Widows Pension income when calculating Housing Benefit entitlement.  This is allowed for under Section 134(8) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

See the full policy for more details.