Are you eligible?
Are You Eligble for Benefit
To apply for Housing and/or Council Tax Benefits from this Authority, you must live within the borough of Dartford and be the person responsible for paying the rent and/or Council Tax.
Most full-time students are not eligible to claim, however, you may claim if you are a full-time student and you are a single parent or a couple with children or disabled.
Valuing the rent – private tenants
Most tenants who rent their accommodation from private landlords (except Housing Association tenants and certain other tenants) will have their rent referred to the Rent Service, before their Housing Benefit is calculated.
The Rent Service looks at the accommodation that is being rented
and makes an independent valuation of the rent. Housing Benefit
is awarded based on the Rent Service’s assessment of the rent.
The Rent Service assesses an average rental value by comparing
the accommodation with similar types of rented accommodation in
the same area. They also look at the number of rooms in the accommodation
compared to the number of adults and children who live there.
If the Rent Service determines that the rent is too high and/or
the accommodation is too large for the number of people who live
there, the full rent will not be approved for Housing Benefit.
In these cases the Rent Service will determine a lower rental figure
and Housing Benefit will be calculated based on that lower figure.
If the tenant is not able to pay the shortfall between the Housing Benefit and the rent, they can apply to the Council for Discretionary Housing Payments, which are extra payments that may be awarded to pay some or all of the shortfall.
Your income
If you receive Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance Income Based, you will probably qualify for help with your rent and/or Council Tax. However, if you have other `non-dependant’ adults living in your home this will affect your entitlement.
Anyone who works and is on a low wage or who is retired or unable to work for other reasons and has a low income, may also qualify for help with his or her rent and/or Council Tax.
The amount of Benefit that you qualify for depends on how much money you have coming in each week (including State benefits) also your savings and investments, the number of dependant children that you have living with you (if any) and the amount of your rent and/or Council Tax. CLICK HERE FOR AN ONLINE CALCULATION ESTIMATE
Anyone (either a single person or a couple) who has £16,000 or more in capital (i.e. savings, shares, bonds etc. etc.) is not eligible to apply.
