You can claim housing benefit if you pay rent to live in your home:
- If you have a low income whether from benefits or low-paid work, including if you are self-employed
- If you are moving from benefits into work
- If you have savings of less than £16,000
- If you have a partner we will include their income and savings as well when we work out any benefit entitlement.
If you are entitled to housing benefit we will usually pay it from the Monday after we receive your claim. If you want to claim council tax benefit too, you only need to make one claim. We will assess your housing benefit and council tax benefit at the same time.
You can apply, re-apply or report a change in your circumstances by using our Do it online service on the right.
People who do not need to apply direct to Bolton Council
You may have already made your claim for housing benefit when you applied for one of these benefits:
- Income Support or;
- Job Seekers Allowance Income Based or;
- Employment Support Allowance or;
- Pension Credit
Sometimes the Department for Work and Pensions office may need to send you an extra application form to complete so that you can claim housing benefit. They will tell you if they are going to send you a form and where to send the form back to.
Information and evidence needed
Because housing benefit is a means tested benefit, we need to know about all your income and savings, and the income and savings of your partner. Examples of the information and evidence needed are provided on the claim form. To see what kind of information you will need to provide, see the 'Evidence for benefits' download on the right.
The easiest way to provide the evidence is to take your original documents to your nearest One Stop Shop where they can be photocopied and verified. We cannot accept photocopies of original documents.
If you are unable to visit one of our office, we may be able to visit you in your home.
Fast track your benefit claim
If you make your claim and provide all the information needed at the same time, we will guarantee to process your claim within three working days.
If you make your claim online and provide all the information needed within three days, we will guarantee to process your claim within three working days.