Benefits – Advice for Tenants

Council Tenants

If you are a council tenant any benefit awarded will be paid directly to your rent account on a weekly basis, usually each Thursday. After we have assessed your claim and made your first payment the Housing Department will then tell you in writing how much your new lower rent is. Housing Benefit cannot pay your water rates even if the rest of your rent is being paid, you will have to pay your water rates yourself.

If you are in rent arrears please contact the Housing Contact Centre for advice on 020 8547 5003.

Private Tenants

A private tenant is anyone who rents their property from someone who is not the Council. You can be a Housing Association tenant or rent from a private landlord.

Housing Association Tenants

This covers Housing Associations, charities, hostels and the YMCA. The Council will normally assess benefit on the full rent charged but not counting certain ineligible charges. This is why we may ask you for proof of the full breakdown of your rent.

Examples of some ineligible charges that may be included in you rent:

meals
personal heating, lighting and hot water
meals
counselling and support laundry

This is not a full list. Generally, if a service charge is for communal areas, it can be paid by Housing Benefits.

Tenants of Private Landlords

If your tenancy began after 1989 and your claim for Housing Benefit began before April 2008, then the Council may not work out your benefit on the full rent charged. Instead benefit will be worked out on a rent figure given by the Rent Officer service. This is an independent body which tells local councils the average rent for the sort of property needed by you and your family in the Royal Borough of Kingston.

The Rent Officer may place a restriction on the maximum rent we can use in your Housing Benefit application. The Rent Officer may tell the Council that:

your rent is higher than the average
your rent is excessively high
you are "over-accommodated" (meaning that your property is larger than you actually need).

If this happens you can ask for another Rent Officer to look at the decision again. This is known as a "re-determination". To do this please contact us, not the Rent Officer service. You should note that there is no actual, formal right of appeal to the Appeals Service over a rent restriction. The Rent Service may keep their original decision, increase the rent that we can use, or lower the rent that we can use in your Housing Benefit calculation.

If you make a claim after April 2008, we will work out your claim based on your Local Housing Allowance (LHA). Please click here for further information on Local Housing Allowance.

Discretionary Housing Payments

However, if your rent is restricted you can claim "Discretionary Housing Payments". Discretionary Housing Payments are available to claimants who

are entitled to Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit; and
"appear to the authority to require some further financial assistance to meet housing costs"

Funds available under this scheme are limited and so we target payments to those in greatest need. To find out more about the scheme or if you wish to apply, please contact us.