There are three ways to claim Council Tax Benefit:
- Together with a claim for Pension Credit
- Together with a claim for Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance (income based)
- Directly to your local Council
When you make a claim for Pension Credit, if you do not already get Council Tax Benefit, you will be asked whether you want to make a claim for Council Tax Benefit on your Pension Credit claim form. If you claim be phone, the adviser will ask you if you want to claim Council Tax Benefit. The Pension Service will send you a form that you need to fill in and send back to the Council.
If you apply for Jobseekers Allowance or Income Support a claim form for Council Tax Benefit will be enclosed with the claim pack. If you make a telephone claim, you will be asked if you want to claim Council Tax Benefit, your Council Tax Benefit claim form will be forwarded to the Council.
In other circumstances, you must claim Council Tax Benefit directly from the Council by filling in a claim form. Once you have filled in the claim form send it back to the Council as soon as possible.
You can contact the Benefits and Revenues Customer Services Section for a claim form to be sent to you or if you prefer we can complete the claim form with you over the telephone or in person at our office in Ripley. Benefit Advisors are available at our Town Centre Offices in Alfreton, Belper and Heanor to help you complete the claim form.
You can download the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claim form from our website or collect one from one of our Town Centre Offices.
Where a claim is made direct to the Council entitlement generally begins on the Monday following your verbal or written request to claim benefit, as long as we receive a completed claim form from you within a calendar month of your request.
However a claim may be backdated where the claimant can show ‘good cause’ as to why the claim was not made earlier. For working aged claimants a claim may be backdated for a maximum of up to 6 months from the date of the backdating request. For pension aged claimants we are able to consider the claim for a maximum of 3 months before the date of claim.
A person may claim Council Tax Benefit up to 17 weeks in advance of their 60th Birthday, or up to 13 weeks in advance of some other event which will mean they will become entitled to Council Tax Benefit, for example moving to a new address. However we will not be able to pay you any Council Tax Benefit until you move in.
