This is a change in your personal or financial circumstances which may or may not affect your entitlement to benefit. You must contact us at once if your circumstances change, or you could have to repay an overpayment, a fine or face prosecution. If you are not sure what a change of circumstance is you must contact the Benefits section immediately.
Change in circumstance can include:
- you change your address
- you start or stop getting Income Support or Income Based Jobseekers Allowance
- your income and/or capital changes
- the income and/or capital of your children or other people in your household changes
- anyone joins or leaves your household
- you or your partner go into hospital for more than four weeks or long term care in a nursing home.
A change in your circumstances must be notified to us within 1 month from the date of the change, or you could have to repay an overpayment, a fine or face prosecution.
When you apply for Housing Benefit / Council Tax Reduction, you will sign a declaration which confirms that you will tell us of any change in your personal circumstances which may affect the payment of your claim. It is important that you tell us of any changes immediately to make sure that the correct amount of Housing Benefit / Council Tax Reduction is awarded to you. It is your responsibility to tell us of any change in your personal circumstances.
If you are away from home and intend to return home then you should tell us, as you may still be able to claim. Normally Housing Benefit can only be paid for absences up to 13 weeks and you must contact us before you go away. If you go into hospital for a long time, your housing benefit will be only be paid for a maximum of one year (52 weeks).
To tell us about changes you can -
Phone us - 01546 605512
Email us - benefitsgeneralenquiries@argyll-bute.gov.uk
Visit us - At your local customer service point