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Housing and Council Tax benefit are means tested benefits and your income and savings will affect how much benefit you receive. If you or your partner have savings of over £16,000, you will not be eligible for either of these benefits.
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Capital
Income: State Benefits
Income: Earnings
Income: Self Employment
Income: Other Income
Benefits Regulations state how we must treat any capital or savings you have. This includes land and property other than your home as well as stocks, shares, bonds, bank and building society accounts.
The first £6,000 of your capital is disregarded (ie: not counted in the benefit calculation) but for every part or full £250 above £6,000, we must add £1.00 to your weekly income when we calculate benefit.
If you are aged over 60, the first £6,000 of your capital is disregarded, but for every part or full £500 above £6,000, we must add £1 to your weekly income when we calculate benefit.
The table below shows how any capital above £6,000 (but below the £16,000 limit for Housing and Council Tax Benefit) is converted to a weekly “Tariff Income”.
| Capital Held | Tariff | Capital Held | = | Tarriff | Capital Held | Tariff | |||||
| Between | and | Between | and | Between | and | ||||||
| £6000.01 | £6250.00 | = | £1.00 | £7750.01 | £8000.00 | = | £8.00 | £9500.01 | £9750.00 | = | £15.00 |
| £6250.01 | £6500.00 | = | £2.00 | £8000.01 | £8250.00 | = | £9.00 | £9750.01 | £10000.00 | = | £16.00 |
| £6500.01 | £6750.00 | = | £3.00 | £8250.01 | £8500.00 | = | £10.00 | £10000.01 | £10250.00 | = | £17.00 |
| £6750.01 | £7000.00 | = | £4.00 | £8500.01 | £8750.00 | = | £11.00 | £10250.01 | £10500.00 | = | £18.00 |
| £7000.01 | £7250.00 | = | £5.00 | £8750.01 | £9000.00 | = | £12.00 | £10500.01 | £10750.00 | = | £19.00 |
| £7250.01 | £7500.00 | = | £6.00 | £9000.01 | £9250.00 | = | £13.00 | £10750.01 | £11000.00 | = | £20.00 |
| £7500.01 | £7750.00 | = | £7.00 | £9250.01 | £9500.00 | = | £14.00 | And so on up to |
£16000.00 | = | £52.00 |
We need to see proof of all capital held by either:
By capital we mean all your money - not just what you would call “savings”. Examples of Capital that we must be told about include:
Acceptable forms of evidence or proof include:
The letter must say whether the details reflect the account for the last two months and provide any information on regular monies deposited into the account. Up to date bank statements for your account(s) may still be required.
Original documents showing proof of ownership for example, dividend statements detailing assets for:
A SLIP FROM A CASHPOINT SHOWING THE OUTSTANDING BALANCE OF AN ACCOUNT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AS EVIDENCE. If you cannot provide proof for any reason, you should contact the Benefits Office immediately who will advise you what to do, or arrange a visit if necessary.
Remember :
We need to see the original documents, not photocopies. If you do not provide the documents we need, your Benefit may be delayed.
INCOME
State Benefits
If you are getting Income Support, Income Based Jobseekers Allowance or income related Employment & Support Allowance, we may already have proof of this. If not, we are able to get proof directly from the Department for Work & Pensions.
Where you, your husband/wife/partner or your non-dependants are getting any other Social Security benefit, you will need to provide proof.
You can do this in a number of ways, but the best kinds of evidence are:
If you are getting Child Benefit and cannot find your last award notification letter, but do not want to send your order book through the post, you can ask the Child Benefit Unit in Newcastle for a CH84 Form. This gives us all the information we need. You can contact the Child Benefit Unit on 08701 555540.
If the State Benefits are paid directly into a bank or building society account and the award notification letter is not available, we can also accept current bank statements or passbooks, which show the payments of benefit received.
If you are employed we need to see evidence of your earned income and the earnings of your husband/wife/partner or any non-dependants. The evidence you provide must cover either the last:
The best kinds of evidence are either:
Other forms of evidence acceptable under the Verification Framework are:
The Verification Framework states that the evidence should show:
If you, your husband/wife/partner or your non-dependants are Self-Employed, we will need to see either:
It would also be helpful if you could send us your latest tax assessment.
Download a Self-Employed earnings form (PDF)
If any person is involved in more than one form of self-employment, we need to see separate evidence for each type of work.
If you wish to print out the form and complete it to inform us of these details, then please download the form, press Print on your browser, then press the Back button on your browser to return to this page. Or you can obtain a form from the Benefits Office.
You will need to provide proof of all other income received by yourself, your husband/wife/partner or your non-dependants. Income received for child maintenance is disregarded (i.e. not counted in the benefit calculation), but you will still need to confirm the amounts and provide evidence. The kind of proof that you can supply will depend on the kind of income, but as an example, the following are acceptable as evidence of “other” income:
This list does not cover every type of income but whatever you provide, we need to see the original documents, not photocopies. If you are not sure about what proof to send, you should contact the Benefits Office. If you do not provide the documents we need your Benefit may be delayed.
There are certain expenses which can be offset against your income for Housing and Council Tax benefit purposes. These expenses are:
| Contact details | |
|---|---|
| Bournemouth Council | |
| Town Hall, Bourne Avenue Bournemouth BH2 6DY | |
| Tel: 01202 451451 | |
| Fax: 01202 451000 | |
| Minicom: 01202 454728 | |
| Email: Enquiries | |