Please note that the Benefit Advisor team will be unavailable to answer enquiries or conduct interviews, either face-to-face or on the telephone, on Wednesdays.

This allows the team to carry out quicker and more efficient processing of claims, with the aim of ensuring that customers receive their entitlement on time.

The Benefits Investigations Team and the Overpayments Team are still available on Wednesdays.

Our Benefits Team provide help to people who cannot afford to pay their rent or Council Tax.

Housing Benefit can be paid to people who rent from the Council, a Housing Association or a private landlord. Council Tax Reduction can be paid to those who are liable for Council Tax. Second Adult Rebate can only be claimed by people who are State Pension Credit age.

From 7th April 2008, any new claims from Private Tenants (excluding Housing Association, mobile home, houseboat, those whose tenancy started before 15th January 1989 or those where a large part of the rent is for board and attendance) are assessed under the Local Housing Allowance scheme. For further details about Local Housing Allowances, please click on the link to the left of this page.

You may claim Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction even if you are not receiving any other type of benefit.

If you are State Pension Credit age, you may instead be eligible for Second Adult Rebate. This is another form of Council Tax Reduction, payable to single, Pension Credit age liable people who have a Second Adult living in their property who is not their partner. Second Adult Rebate is calculated on the income of the Second Adult, who must be aged at least 18 and not be paying rent to the person liable for Council Tax on the property.

You may claim as long as your capital is under £16000 (If you receive Pension Credit Guarantee your capital can be more than £16,000)

You can ask for your claim to be backdated if there is a valid reason why you were unable to apply for Housing Benefit/Council Tax Reduction earlier.

The amount of benefit you receive will be based on:-

• The amount of money you have coming in
• The amount of savings you have, including shares and bonds
• The make up of your household and your personal circumstances
• The amount of eligible rent and Council Tax you pay (certain items that may be included in your rent are excluded when calculating entitlement)

If you are unsure whether you would qualify for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction or Second Adult Rebate, please call in to Marmion House, ring the Benefits Section on (01827) 709540 or e-mail benefits@tamworth.gov.uk. Alternatively, a downloadable form is available to the right of this page.

Council Tax Benefit has been abolished from 1 April 2013

Council Tax Benefit has been replaced by a new Local Reduction Scheme from 1 April 2013. Until this date, Council Tax Benefit was a national welfare benefit which was paid to help meet the cost of your Council Tax. Anyone who pays Council Tax for their home could claim Council Tax Benefit by sending an application form to the Council.

New Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme to replace Council Tax Benefit

Tamworth Borough Council established a new Council Tax Reduction Scheme.  This is a result of the Government's Welfare Reform Act which abolished Council Tax Benefit and replaced it with a new scheme of Localised Council Tax  Reduction from 1 April 2013.

Councils have been advised that local schemes should support Government objectives for: 

• creating the right incentives to get more people into work by ensuring that work always pays,
• protecting the most vulnerable people, and
• delivering fairness to those claiming benefit and to the taxpayer

The Government has said that Councils must protect pensioners in the scheme.  For Working Age recipients, there is a requirement to agree local eligibility criteria.
 
Under the previous Council Tax Benefit scheme, the Council was reimbursed up to 100% for the amount of Council Tax Benefit it paid out to local claimants.

However, under the new system it has been given a specific sum by the Government to make Reduction payments. This is at least 10% less than the amount that was awarded as Council Tax Benefit.

On 13 December 2012, there was a majority vote at full Council to implement a Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for Tamworth’s working age residents for 1 April 2013-31 March 2014. This decision followed an eight week public consultation period. The scheme is as follows, which replaced Council Tax Benefit after its abolition on 31 March 2013;

Pensioners - there is a national scheme which is broadly the same as it is now – those of State Pension Credit age and not in receipt of any working age benefits are protected from any reductions to entitlement.

Working age – the Local Council Tax Reduction scheme is based on 75% of Council Tax liability.  This means that anyone who currently got Council Tax Benefit have had that amount reduced by 25% (please see below if in a property Band above Band D).  The exception to this is those of working age who attract a Severe Disability Premium in their calculation, those with disabled children and War Widows/War Disablement Pension recipients.

Other changes for working age customers are;

• the removal of Second Adult Rebate
• Reduction based on a maximum of 75% of Band D liability
• maintenance is included as income
• higher non dependant charges, rising to £5 per week if the non dependant does not work and rising to £10 per week if the non dependant works

Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 8.45 am to 5.10 pm
                     Please note - last appointment time is 4.50 pm

                     Friday 8.45 am to 5.05 pm
                     Please note - last appointment time is 4.45 pm

To improve the time taken to process claims, the Benefits Team will be unavailable on Wednesdays.

Our quality promises are;

We promise to deal with new benefit claims within 14 days of receiving all the necessary information

We promise to pay customers the correct amount of benefit first time, every time

If you have any complaints, compliments or comments to make about the Benefits Service, please use our Tell Us Scheme to give us your feedback which is very important to us. You can also contact Karen Taylor, Head of Benefits on (01827) 709529 or e mail karen-taylor@tamworth.gov.uk

Tamworth Borough Council has a duty to protect public funds and we may need to check the information for your Benefit claim with other information we hold. We may pass the information to other agencies such as The Department for Work and Pensions and Her Majestys Revenue and Customs, as allowed by law.

We may check information you have provided, including self-employed details or information about you that somebody else has provided, with other information held by us. We may also get information about you from third parties, or give them information to;

• make sure the information is accurate
• prevent or detect crime or
• protect public funds

If you want to know more about the information held about you or about the way we use it, please contact Tamworth Borough Council's Information Officer, Derek Bolton, on (01827) 709587 or email foimailbox@tamworth.gov.uk