A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit From April 2011 manchester.gov.uk Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 1
2 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Contents 4 What is Housing Benefit? 6 Who can claim Housing Benefit? 7 How much Housing Benefit can we pay? 9 Who must pay council tax? 10 Making a claim for benefit 12 Original documents we can accept as evidence of identity and National Insurance number 14 What evidence we need from people making a claim 16 When we pay benefit and for how long 17 Information we can give you 19 Payments 21 Overpayments 22 Appeals and reviews 23 Preventing eviction 24 Manchester Landlord Forum 25 How to contact us 25 Appointments for Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit enquiries at other offices
What is Housing Benefit? Housing Benefit is a welfare benefit that helps people on a low income pay rent for the home they live in. Local councils pay this benefit using rules set out by the Government. The Benefits Service organises paying Housing Benefit. Housing Benefit is a means-tested benefit, so the amount of benefit people get depends on: their income their savings the size and condition of their home their rent who lives with them. To claim Housing Benefit, tenants need to fill in a claim form. Tenants can make a benefit claim online at www.manchester.gov.uk/benefits They can also get one from any of the places listed under How to contact us at the back of this booklet. If your tenant is making a claim for Income Support, Jobseeker s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit, they can also claim Housing Benefit at the same time. Jobcentre Plus and The Pension Service will send the details for us to work out Housing Benefit. We may need to ask your tenant for some extra details. 4 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Claim form Housing Benefit Education benefits Council Tax Benefit Use this form to claim: Please tear along the dotted line and keep this page. Housing Benefit Council Tax Benefit Free school meals Secondary-school clothing grants rent rebate or rent allowance to help with your rent. (including Second Adult Rebate) to help with your council tax. Second Adult Rebate is help with council tax for people who have other adults on a low income living with them (but not a partner). for children at state schools. See note 9 for the rules about w h oq u a l i fi e s. for children in school years 7 and 10 at state schools. See note 9 for the rules about who qualifies. Fill in this form to claim all these benefits. We will write to tell you if you can get benefit, and how much, as soon as possible. See Return this form below. Don t use this form: if you would prefer to claim online. You can do this at www.manchester.gov.uk if you are already getting benefits from us and you are changing your address within Manchester. Use our shorter change of address form instead. You can get this from our Customer Service Centre without an appointment (see page 26 for the address), from some local housing offices, or by phoning us on 0161 234 5003. Or go to www.manchester.gov.uk/benefits/coa and print out the right form for your circumstances. Council tenants who live outside the Manchester boundary can only claim rent rebate from us. Contact your local council to claim Council Tax Benefit and education benefits. Return this form to us straight away or you may lose benefit. Do not delay sending the form in because you are waiting for evidence of earnings or rent, for example. Send the form in you can send evidence later. However, we will make a decision on your benefit (or contact you for more information) within five working days of receiving your form if you give us all the information and evidence we ask for at the same time as your form. If you can t send everything in with the form, send your evidence as soon as you can afterwards. Make sure we receive it within one month of sending us the form or we may not be able to pay you any benefit. Make sure your name and address are on anything you send us later. Please read the notes over the page and after page 26 before you fill in the form. We are sorry this form is long but we need all the details and evidence we ask for to work out and pay your benefit. April 2011 Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 5
Who can claim Housing Benefit? Anyone who pays rent for the home they live in can claim. But not everyone who pays rent will qualify. Tenants may not qualify if: their income or savings are too high they live with, and pay rent to, a close relative they used to live with their landlord as a family member, relative or friend and now pay rent to that person they belong to a religious order they live in a care home, such as a nursing home or home for elderly people they have a non-commercial arrangement with their landlord (the agreement under which they live in the property includes terms that cannot be enforced by law) they rent a home from their ex-partner and they used to live in the property with that person they are responsible for their landlord s child they rent their property from a company and they are a director or employee of that company they rent from a trust and they are the trustee or a beneficiary they used to own the property they now rent they live in their home as part of their job they are full-time students (most full-time students don t qualify, but some do). If your tenant is not sure if they qualify, get them to fill in a form and return it to us straight away. We will write to tell them whether we can pay benefit. You and your tenant should not assume that we will pay benefit or how much we will pay until we tell them our decision in writing. 6 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
How much Housing Benefit can we pay? This will depend on which Housing Benefit rules apply to the claim. Local Housing Allowance claims For claims being paid under the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rules this will be most private-rented properties from April 2008: we will use a flat-rate rent set by the Valuation Office Agency the rate we use will depend on the number of bedrooms your tenant needs, up to a limit of four bedrooms the LHA rate will not normally depend on how much the tenant s rent is, but the amount of Housing Benefit we pay cannot be more than the rent they pay or the LHA rate they are entitled to (whichever is the lower) your tenant will still have to provide proof of their rent, showing how much rent they pay and how often it is due single people under 25 (increasing to 35 from January 2012) without children are usually only entitled to the shared accommodation rate your tenant cannot appeal against the level of Local Housing Allowance. Non-Local Housing Allowance claims For tenants who do not come under the LHA rules, we use their eligible rent to work out their Housing Benefit (see below). Their Housing Benefit will not always cover their full rent. Eligible rent is not always the same as the rent you charge them. It does not cover some service charges such as heating, water or meals. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 7
We refer all rent charged by private landlords, and some rent charged by social landlords, to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). The VOA gives us a rental valuation of the property. If the VOA s valuation is less than the rent charged, we must use their valuation when deciding the eligible rent to use to work out the tenant s Housing Benefit. The VOA s address is Network Support Office, VOA Housing Allowances, Wycliff House, Green Lane, Durham DH1 3UW. You can email them on nsohelpdesk@ voa.gsi.gov.uk You can t appeal against the figures the VOA set to work out your tenant s benefit. Your tenant can appeal to us and we will ask the VOA to look again at their decision (see the section Appeals and reviews on page 22 for more information about appeals). We usually limit benefit for single people under 25 (increasing to 35 in January 2012) without children to a single-room rent set by the VOA. Contact us to find out the latest single-room rent. Housing Benefit is not always the same as the eligible rent. We may have to pay less than the eligible rent because of the tenant s income or because they have other adults living with them (for example, an adult son or daughter, another relative or a friend). See our leaflet on Housing and Council Tax Benefit for more information about how non-dependants affect benefit, or visit our website at www.manchester. gov.uk/benefits If Housing Benefit does not cover the full rent, your tenant is responsible for paying the difference to you. Tenants are also responsible for paying rent for any periods not covered by Housing Benefit. 8 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Who must pay council tax? An owner-occupier (someone who lives in the home they own) or a tenant aged 18 or over living in the property they rent is usually responsible for paying the council tax. In some circumstances, the owner is responsible for paying, even if they don t live there. The most common example of this is a house in multiple occupation (HMO). What is an HMO? In an HMO: tenants rent their own rooms in the property and share other facilities (for example, a bathroom or kitchen, or both) each tenant has a separate tenancy agreement with only their name on it. Students If all the tenants are full-time students in further or higher education, the property will be exempt from council tax during the period of study, even if the property is an HMO. Courses must be for at least one academic year and periods of study, tuition or work experience must be for at least 21 hours a week. All students of The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Bolton University, Manchester College of Law or Manchester Victoria College must apply to our Council Tax Service for an exemption and provide them with their student ID number. Students of other universities must also apply to the Council Tax Service for an exemption, but they need to provide their student certificate (they can get this from their university or college admissions office or student services office). Joint tenants If a property is rented out to more than one person and is not classed as an HMO, the tenants are responsible for paying council tax. A joint tenancy like this should have only one tenancy agreement. It must show all tenants names. If you have any questions about council tax You can contact the following Email ctax.enquiries@manchester.gov.uk or call 0161 234 5002. You can also visit us at the Customer Service Centre at Number One First Street or write to The Council Tax Service, PO Box 147, Manchester M15 5TU. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 9
Making a claim for benefit Tenants must claim in writing. They can make a claim online at www.manchester. gov.uk/benefits but they must sign a separate declaration form and send this to us. They can also fill in a benefit claim form in full and sign it. We also ask the tenant s partner to sign. If someone helps them fill in the form, we ask that person to sign it too. The tenant should not delay sending the declaration or their claim form to us. If they cannot get hold of the proof they need straight away, they should send the claim form first and the proof later, but we must receive it within a month. By partner, we mean someone of the opposite sex a person is married to or lives with as if they are married, or their civil partner or someone of the same sex who lives with them as if they are their civil partner. (A civil partner is someone who has entered into a formal arrangement known as a civil partnership with a same-sex partner, which means they have the same legal rights as a married couple.) Your tenant must show us some original documents See the list opposite and the section Original documents we can accept as evidence of identity and National Insurance number on pages 12 and 13. Your tenant can speed things up by sending these with their claim. 10 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Evidence of rent We need evidence of the rent your tenant has to pay. This is usually a tenancy agreement. Evidence of rent must include: the full name and home or business address of the landlord the full name and home or business address of any agent the date the tenancy will start the full address of the property they are renting the amount of rent charged the landlord s or agent s signature your tenant s signature the date the document was signed details of services included in the rent; for example, meals, gas, electricity, and water rates the amount included for these services the full names of those renting the property how often the rent is due (usually every week, every four weeks or every month) how long the tenancy will last for. Evidence of your tenant s (and their partner s) identity and National Insurance number The law says we must see evidence of your tenant s identity and National Insurance number before we can deal with a claim. We also need separate evidence of their partner s identity and National Insurance number (unless the partner is unable to get a National Insurance number). We must see two documents for your tenant and two separate documents for their partner. They must be originals we cannot accept photocopies. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 11
Original documents we can accept as evidence of identity and National Insurance number We must see one document from list 1 (below) to confirm the National Insurance number of the person claiming benefit, and one document from list 1 or list 2 to confirm their identity. If they have a partner, we must also see one document from list 1 to confirm their National Insurance number and one document from list 1 or list 2 to confirm their identity. This means we need to see two separate documents to prove the identity and National Insurance number for a single person and four separate documents to prove the identity and National Insurance numbers for a couple. List 1 A P45 or P60 A payslip, salary statement or work pension statement (as long as it shows their National Insurance number) A letter from HM Revenue & Customs about tax or tax credit A letter that The Pension Service or Jobcentre Plus has sent (not handwritten) A National Insurance number card A bank statement showing payments by direct debit for class 2 National Insurance contributions, or benefit payments received showing the tenant s National Insurance number. 12 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
List 2 A birth, marriage or civil partnership certificate, divorce, annulment, separation, or ending a civil partnership papers. This must be in the tenant s name. If they changed their name because of marriage or civil partnership, we need to see their marriage or civil partnership certificate as well A full or provisional driving licence (either the photocard or the paper part) A credit card, cheque card, debit card or cash card A bank or building society statement from the last four weeks or a passbook for a bank or building society account A current and valid passport or national identity card A residence permit, aliens registration certificate, immigration and nationality directorate travel document, standard acknowledgement letter (SAL1 or 2) or an application registration card (ARC) A letter from the Home Office about their immigration status A gas, electricity, water or phone bill in the tenant s name that they received within the past three months (we cannot accept a mobile-phone bill) A letter from a doctor, solicitor, social worker, probation officer or HM Revenue & Customs A certificate of employment in HM Forces or the Merchant Navy A medical card or TV licence in the tenant s name A B79 form for notice that the tenant has been released from prison Any document from list 1 above as long as it is different from the one that the tenant (or their partner) is sending to confirm their National Insurance number. Your tenant should not delay sending us their claim because they do not have these documents. They should send the filled-in claim form to us straight away and the documents within one month. If they don t, we may decide that they are not entitled to benefit. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 13
What evidence we need from people making a claim A checklist of the evidence we need for Housing Benefit claims Your tenant Their partner Evidence of identity Evidence of National Insurance number Evidence of rent (See pages 10 and 11 for the documents we will accept.) If claiming benefits Evidence of Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker s Allowance, or Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit) Evidence of all other benefits or allowances, including tax credits If the tenant is employed Payslips (for the past five weeks if they are paid every week, or for the past two months if they are paid every month) If the tenant is self-employed, most recent certified accounts 14 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Other income Evidence of works pension Evidence of personal pension Evidence of State Pension or any other kind of pension Evidence of student income Evidence of any other income Your tenant Their partner Income of other people who live with the tenant Evidence of their income Savings and investments Evidence of all their savings and investments, including all bank accounts Expenses Evidence of contributing towards the upkeep of a student Evidence of contributions to a personal (private) pension scheme Your tenant won t get benefit unless they send us the evidence we ask for. If they do not provide the evidence, we may decide they are not entitled to benefit. They would then need to make another claim. This will mean they lose out on benefit. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 15
When we pay benefit and for how long When does benefit start and end? A benefit week usually starts on a Monday and ends on a Sunday. We usually start benefit from the Monday after we get the claim. If we get a claim in the same benefit week as the tenancy starts, we will pay benefit from the start of the tenancy, unless we have already paid benefit at a previous address for the same week. Claims are open-ended so they end when the tenant is no longer entitled to benefit. We will make regular checks on customers circumstances throughout the life of the claim to make sure they are entitled to benefit. Changes of circumstance You and your tenant must tell us straight away, in writing, about any changes that may affect their benefit. Most changes take effect on the following Monday. If you or your tenant is not sure what to report, tell us anyway. We will let you or your tenant know if it affects their benefit. Change of address If your tenant moves to a new address, they must fill in a new form with all their latest details so we can continue paying the right amount of benefit. If your tenant leaves your property, their benefit will end even if you are still charging them rent. Your tenant is responsible for any rent they owe after they move. If we have been paying Housing Benefit to you, we may ask you to repay the benefit you have received after your tenant left the property. If your tenant changes rooms in a house where other tenants live, or in board and lodging accommodation, you or your tenant must tell us in writing straight away. 16 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Information we can give you If your tenant has signed the consent box on the claim form or written to us to agree that we can tell you where their claim is up to Our claim form has a box for the tenant to tick if they agree that we can share information with you about the progress of their claim. If they tick this box, we can tell you where the claim is up to. We can also tell you this if your tenant writes to us to say that we can give you information about the progress of their claim. However, we will not give you information about your tenant s personal or financial circumstances. If we pay Housing Benefit direct to your tenant If we pay your tenant, we can t tell you anything unless they have signed the consent box on the claim form or written to tell us we can share information with you about the progress of their claim. All details about your tenant s claim are confidential. We cannot give them to anyone without the tenant s written permission. We cannot even confirm to you that a claim has been made. If we pay your tenant s benefit direct to you If we pay your tenant s Housing Benefit straight to you, we can tell you: the date benefit started and ended the weekly amount of benefit and how often we pay it the amount we are taking from their benefit if we are taking back an overpayment details of any cheque paid direct to you. If we start or stop paying you direct, we will write to you to tell you. It is up to you to collect any shortfall between the benefit we have paid and the rent your tenant owes you. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 17
If we are paying you direct, you can also see information about your tenant s claims on the online service available for landlords. You must register to do this see www.manchester.gov.uk/tracker for details. If we pay your tenant s benefit direct to your agent we expect to deal with your agent, not both of you you must ask your tenant or agent for any information you need we will give your agent the same information we would give you if we paid you. What could delay benefit being paid? We cannot pay benefit if: we have not received a claim your tenant hasn t filled the form in properly we haven t got all the evidence we ve asked for we need to ask more questions about the information your tenant has given us. The tenant is responsible for giving us all the evidence we need to process their benefit. We will always ask your tenant for the details we need, and we will write and tell them if we decide they are not entitled to benefit. 18 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Payments General rules on payments If we are paying Housing Benefit under the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rules, we will usually pay the benefit to your tenant. Your tenant can no longer ask us to pay their benefit direct to you. We can only pay Housing Benefit directly to you in the following circumstances: Your tenant is vulnerable, for example they have learning difficulties, a medical condition, illiteracy issues or an addiction, which means they are unable to deal with their own affairs. Please note that this is not a full list. Your tenant is considered to be unlikely to pay you the Housing Benefit they receive for rent. We will make this decision using any information provided for us by your tenant, yourself or from other interested parties. You have reduced the rent for the property to an affordable level to help your tenant retain or secure the tenancy. For more information about this, see our safeguards policy, which can be downloaded from www.manchester.gov.uk/benefits For claims where the LHA rules do not apply, the tenant can choose whether they want their benefit paid to them or direct to you. For all claims the law says that if a tenant owes eight weeks rent or more, we must: pay the landlord direct, or stop paying benefit temporarily if it is not in the tenant s interests to pay the landlord direct. Please write and tell us as soon as your tenant has missed payments worth eight weeks rent or more, or earlier if you believe your tenant is getting Housing Benefit but is not using the money to pay their rent. In some circumstances, we make the first cheque we send to your tenant payable to you. This is usually because the cheque includes a large payment for benefit (this could be backdated benefit or benefit we owe because there has been a delay in us paying benefit). Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 19
Payments direct to you We can make payments by paying the money straight to your bank or building society; you will need to give us your full bank or building society details. If needed, we can send you a cheque, but we prefer to pay you directly into your account. We pay Housing Benefit every four weeks for the four weeks that have just passed. Unfortunately, we cannot pay Housing Benefit to coincide with the payment date for rent that is due every month. Your tenant can ask us to stop paying you direct. We will write and tell you if this happens. If we pay your tenant s benefit direct to you because they have missed rent payments, we may start paying your tenant instead only if we are satisfied that the missed payments amount to less than eight weeks rent. We will not pay you direct if we decide that you are not behaving properly over benefit matters. For example, if you have committed benefit fraud, you do not tell us about changes, or you do not repay overpaid benefit that was paid to you. If we pay you direct, we can ask you to repay any overpayment only if we are satisfied it was reasonable to expect you to know you were being overpaid. If the overpayment was because of a change in your tenant s income or family, we will usually ask your tenant to repay rather than you. If you think your tenant is making a fraudulent claim for benefit, please tell us straight away (we would not normally expect you to pay back the overpayment if this happens). See Overpayments on the next page for more information. You must write to tell us immediately if your tenant moves out or about any other information that may affect your tenant s benefit. If you have several tenants on benefit, we combine all the payments into one payment. We will send you a list of payment details for each tenant. You can also receive this via email if you would prefer. If you would like to do this, then email d.riley1@manchester.gov.uk and provide your name, your creditor reference (your unique number, which will be shown on a previous payment list), your contact telephone number and the email address where you would like the payment list to go. 20 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Overpayments If we find we have paid too much benefit, we can ask your tenant to pay it back. Or, if we are satisfied you must have known we were paying too much benefit, we can ask you to pay it back. How we can recover overpayments The main ways we recover overpayments are: taking money off your tenant s ongoing benefit taking money off other benefit we owe your tenant taking money off your benefit payments for other tenants sending a bill for the overpaid amount to you or your tenant. Taking money off your tenant s ongoing benefit If your tenant s circumstances change and there is an overpayment, we often take the money back by taking money off their ongoing benefit each week (even if they live at an address that is different from where the overpayment happened). It is up to your tenant to pay the difference in rent that they owe to you. Bills We can send a bill to: recover an overpayment from your tenant if they are no longer on benefit recover an overpayment from you when, for example, you have been paid benefit after your tenant has moved out. If we send you a bill you disagree with, get in touch with us straight away. As a landlord, you have the right to appeal against our decision to ask you to pay back an overpayment. Unless you appeal, please pay any bill quickly. If you don t repay overpayments when we ask you to, we can take the money out of the benefit we re due to pay you for other tenants. We may decide not to make direct payments to you at all. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 21
Do you suspect fraud? If you suspect your tenant is making a false claim for benefit, you should write to us or ring us straight away to tell us about it: for example, if we are paying benefit and the property is empty, or the tenant has declared they live alone and there s someone else living with them. If there has been a fraud that has resulted in overpaid benefit and you told us about it as soon as you knew, we would ask the tenant to repay any overpayment even if we have paid the benefit direct to you. So let us know as soon as you know or suspect fraud it could be to your advantage. 24-hour Benefit Fraud Hotline Freephone 0800 783 9668 or email stop.benefit.fraud@manchester.gov.uk Appeals and reviews Appeals by tenants Tenants who disagree with our decision about their benefit claim can usually ask us to change the decision. If they disagree with our decision when we look at it again, they can appeal to an independent appeal tribunal. The tenant must write to ask us to change the decision within one month of our decision, and they must personally sign all their letters. You have no right to appeal about your tenant s claim and the details are confidential. We cannot give you any details. If you want to appeal you have a right to ask us to change our decision and to appeal to an independent appeal tribunal. But you can only appeal if we: refuse to pay benefit direct to you decide you should repay an overpayment. Our decision letters set out the right of appeal and the time limits for it. You must write to ask us to change the decision within one month of our decision and you must sign the letter yourself. You can t appeal against the amount of your tenant s benefit or which weeks we award it for. 22 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Requests for backdated benefit We do not backdate benefit unless your tenant has asked us to and they have shown a good reason throughout the backdated period for not claiming earlier (unless your tenant is over the state pension age, when we can go back up to three months if they would have qualified throughout). Preventing eviction We aim to deal with all new claims from private tenants for Housing Benefit quickly, but delays can happen. Sometimes delays happen because of us, but usually delays happen because we are waiting for information or documents from the tenant. We deal with tenants replies as soon as we can, so often pay claims within six weeks. However, if you haven t received a Housing Benefit payment on behalf of your tenant after this time, or earlier if you think Housing Benefit is being paid, and rent arrears are building up and putting their tenancy at risk, please contact us with details. Do this before you take action against the tenant so we can check the case and pay Housing Benefit as soon as possible. You can also remind your tenant that they must: provide all the information and evidence we ask for on the claim form reply quickly to any letters we send them asking for more details. This gives us a chance to try to solve problems and pay Housing Benefit before the situation becomes any more serious and it threatens your tenant s tenancy. You should tell us straight away if at any point your tenant owes you eight weeks rent. If your tenant does not disagree with the amount of rent they owe, we will make payments to you unless we decide it is not in your tenant s interests to pay you, or we decide you are not behaving properly over benefit matters: for example, if you have committed benefit fraud; you do not tell us about changes; or you do not repay overpaid benefit. You can call our Landlord Hotline on 0161 219 6121 or you can write or fax the details of the arrears to 0161 455 1130. Please mark your letter or fax as urgent, and for the attention of the Division Manager. Remember to give your tenant s name, the property address and the tenant s benefit number (if you know it). Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 23
Manchester Landlord Forum (held by the Private Rented Sector Team of Manchester Housing) Manchester Landlord Forum is a good way for landlords and agents to stay informed about what s happening in the private rented sector, both locally and nationally. You can keep up to date with issues that affect you and you can have your say about those issues. The forum has been running since 1997 and has a steering group (similar to a committee) of landlords and agents elected by the forum. Members decide what topics are discussed and how the forum should be run. The forum lets you know about changes that will affect your business. There are local as well as city-wide forums. For details of the next meeting, visit www.manchester.gov.uk and search for landlord forum. The forum also includes a general Housing Benefit update. The update is a vital way of finding out what s happening with Housing Benefit and any changes that may affect you. The forum is an opportunity to meet other landlords and letting agents and share ideas. Whether you are a long-established letting agent or a new landlord, visit the forum and get involved. To find out more, phone the Private Sector Housing Team in Manchester Housing on 0161 234 4700. 24 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
How to contact us By email Our email address is benefit.enquiries@manchester.gov.uk Online Claim online by following the link on our website at www.manchester.gov.uk By phone For a claim form call 0161 234 5003 (Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 5pm). By textphone This service lets hearing-impaired people use the telephone to contact us on 0161 953 8301. In person Our Customer Service Centre is at Number One First Street, at the junction of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street, M15 4FN (for satellite navigation systems use M1 5DE). Appointments are available Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. To make an appointment call 0161 234 5003 Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 5pm. Home visits may be available in special circumstances. By post The Revenues and Benefits Unit Manchester City Council PO Box 3 Manchester M15 5BA This is also the address for claims, or details of changes that may affect your benefit. Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 25
Appointments for Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit enquiries at other offices. We have appointment sessions at Chorlton, Longsight, Miles Platting, New Moston, North City, Withington and Wythenshawe Forum libraries, and at Northwards Housing Office, 549 Cheetham Hill Road. To make an appointment call 0161 234 5003. You can hand in completed claim forms and get your supporting evidence checked and copied at our Customer Service Centre, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. You can also hand them in at some local housing offices, the libraries listed above and at other reception points across the city. You ll find the addresses and opening times on our website www.manchester.gov.uk/benefits/contact, or in our information sheet Contacting the Benefits Service. This is available from our Customer Service Centre, or by calling 0161 234 5003. 26 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit
Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit 27
For information in your language call 0161 234 5003 0161 234 5003 0161 234 5003 0161 234 5003 0161 230 5003 0161 234 5003 0161 234 5003 0161 230 5003 0161 234 5003 Đê có thêm thông tin băng ngôn ngũ cua ban, hãy goi 0161 234 5003 0161 230 5003 0161 230 5003 To see this leaflet in large print or Braille call 0161 234 5003. Please recycle this when you have finished with it. This leaflet was printed on 100% recycled paper using vegetable-based inks. 70046 Manchester City Council 2011 28 A Landlord s Guide to Housing Benefit