What you need to do to claim housing and council tax benefits

To claim benefits, you must complete a benefit claim form. We will need to see supporting documents to confirm the information you have given us on the form. These must be original documents and not photocopies.

We must also see proof of any self-employed earnings, profit or loss before we can decide how much, if any, benefit you will get. This should be your most recent trading accounts or your day-to-day records of income and spending. If you cannot provide either of these we can send you a self-employed earnings form (SE1) or you can download one from the resources box at the right of this page.

We must also see proof of your identity before we can pay you any benefit. At least two items must be provided. A list of the types of things you can provide is shown on page 18 of the form. You must also give us your national insurance number on page two of the form as we cannot pay you or your partner any benefit without it.

You will need to show us documents to prove that the numbers you have given us belong to you and your partner. These can be any of the following :

• P45 or P60
• wage or salary slips
• Inland Revenue tax code notice
• National Insurance number card
• various benefit books

You can bring these documents to show us at any of our offices, see the contacts page.

Don't delay in making your claim, you could lose benefit if you apply too late.