Your housing benefit or council tax reduction notification explained

When you make a new claim for housing benefit or council tax reduction you will receive a decision notification which will give you details of any housing benefit entitlement or council tax reduction that may be entitled to.

If you report a change in your circumstances to the benefits service, which results in a change to the amount of housing benefit entitlement or council tax reduction that you are entitled to, you will also receive a decision notification advising you of your new entitlement.

The decision notification is made up of two pages. The first page of your housing benefit and council tax reduction decision notification gives details of your entitlement. The second page of the notification explains what you can do if you are not happy with your entitlement and how you can ask for the decision to be reconsidered (reviewed) or how to appeal if you think the decision is incorrect. The second page also explains the terms used on the first page.

It is recommended that you register for My Account so that you can view your notifications online. Please note that you need to have a council tax account in order to view your housing benefit account.

If you choose to get notifications online you can get the first page of your notification using your My Account access. The second page which explains your revision, appeal rights and the terms used on the page accessed online can be found on the explanatory pages below.

If you decide not to get your notifications online, you will then get a paper copy of your decision notification, which will be made up of both pages referred to above.