If you need help paying your rent, most people (except pensioners and a few exempt groups) must apply for Universal Credit through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Universal Credit has replaced housing benefit for most people.
Who should still apply for housing benefit instead of Universal Credit
You should only apply for housing benefit if one or more of the following applies to you:
- you are a pensioner
- if you have a partner, both of you must be of pension age (some exceptions may apply)
- you live in supported accommodation
- you live in temporary accommodation provided or arranged by the council
Do not apply:
- for housing benefit if you have £16,000 or more (including investments, and including any money your partner has), unless you already get Pension Guarantee Credit
- if you live in a bail hostel, residential care home, or nursing home – in this case, contact Ealing Job Centre Plus at 0800 169 0190
If you are eligible for Universal Credit, apply as soon as possible. It is not usually backdated, so if you delay claiming you could lose out on benefit you may be entitled to.
Council tax reduction
Universal Credit does not include help with council tax. You must apply separately to the council.
Council tax reduction is not backdated so you should not delay claiming.
Who should apply for council tax reduction
Apply if:
- you are responsible for paying council tax and need help
- you have less than £6,000 in savings (including your partner’s savings, if you have one)
- you are a pensioner, with savings under £16,000
- if you were placed in your home by another council and pay rent to them
- if you are liable to pay council tax to Ealing Council and need help
For people on Universal Credit
Help with paying your council tax will still be provided through the council tax reduction scheme.
When you apply for Universal Credit, you may be asked if you want to claim a reduction in your council tax. If you did not select this option during your Universal Credit application, you will need to apply separately through the council.
Before you start
Register first
To apply for housing benefit or council tax reduction you need to register for My Account.
To do this you will need to have an email address. If you do not have an email address, you can easily create one free via a number of online providers such as 'yahoo', 'outlook', 'gmail'
Making a claim
Your claim will only be treated as ‘made’ on the day that you submit it. It is important that you start and complete the form on the same day if possible.
Once you start the form you will be able to save it with a view to completing it later but be aware that you may lose benefit if you start then complete the form on different days.
The form will only be kept for 14 days after which you will have to begin again.
Do not delay submitting your claim form if you do not have all the evidence to hand because you may lose benefit.
Uploading supporting documents
We may ask you to upload some documents.
- accepted file types: Word (docx), Acrobat (pdf), Excel (xlsx), Plain text (txt)
- zip files cannot be uploaded
- we also accept clear photos taken on phones and tablets and the following image file types - jpeg, gif, png
- there is a maximum individual file size per document of 50MB
What happens next
After form submission, you will receive notification of the evidence required for your application.
Once you have applied, you need to tell us if your answers to any of the questions change. This is called a ‘change of circumstance’
This form should take approximately 7 minutes to complete.
Read information about the council's policy on collecting data for online forms
