Housing benefit - how long does it take for claim to be processed?

[LolaTheShowgirl]

My question as in title...thanks ladies x

Mine took 7 weeks, plus they messed it up in the meantime and I only realised cos I checked...

Wow, and did you still have to pay normal priced rent til it was processed?

It varies, can be about 12 weeks for some councils. It depends on the landlord about the rent, the last time I claimed it took them 12 weeks and they didn't cover it all so he was well and truly pissed off!

My advice would be make sure they have everything they need to assess your claim; proof of ID, proof of income and bank statements (and get receipts) so there is no hold ups or they may well write to you requesting more information in a bit by bit fashion which will make the whole process long and drawn out. It really does depend on the council though and how busy they are at the time; 2 weeks quickest- 3 months longest.

I took my form in on the 30th January, got my first payment into my account on the 16th February.

Oh and they processed it before they had all of the information - as I hadn't at that point got anything (other than my tenancy agreement) with my name on at my new address.

FAQ- had you previously had a claim with the same council because its much more straight forward and they don't always need all the info.

no I hadn't claimed housing benefit before - had been getting council tax benefit - but not on the house I was applying for HB for.

They gave me a date by which I needed to get the rest of the info to them.

Thats very good then. Although I have heard that they can now check through the DWP/Job Centre to confirm some of this info.

oh god that was the info they then decided the didn't have an I had to take in.

Initially they asked for 2 extra bits on top of what I took in when I first applied. They wanted copies of my recent bank statements, and a utility bill or similar from this address. Gave me a month to get those in. I duly took them in with plenty of time to spare and evidently my claim had already been processed as the following day in the post I received my award letter.

However on the letter it said they wanted proof of me receiving IS at this address, not the information they'd previously asked for. They gave me a date to get it in my by - but IS were REALLY REALLY slow at sending me my change of address letter and I only got that info in at the 11th hour!

Depends where you live IME.

Where I live, if you go to the central council office with all the info you need to provide, you can get it fast tracked and they guarantee to process the claim in two working days.

Thank ypu very much ladies It seems it really varies depending on where you are. It will be the housing association (I think) who will be dealing with my claim.

they have an obligation to consider paying 'interim benefit' if they haven't been able to sort out the claim after 14 days.

When we claimed for it a couple of years ago it took 3 months for the first payment to come through

The council were installing a new computer system apparently. Thank gawd for relatives or we'd have been buggered