Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction

Benefit Claim Form (This form can be completed and submitted online.)

Alternatively contact us at our office or by phone to request an application form, our benefits officers are available to help you complete the form and advise you of the information required to process the claim.

The documents you need to supply

When you make a claim for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction we always need to see original documents for you, your partner and any other people who live in your household. Copies will not be accepted.

Documents can be brought to or sent to our Lerwick office. Any documents posted to the Council will be returned by second-class post.

However the Benefits Section will not accept responsibility for the loss of any documents sent by post. Any valuable documents will be returned by Recorded Delivery

In order to process your claim for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction we will need to see the following:

• Evidence of identity for both you and your partner (proof of who you are, for example, a passport, birth certificate or driving licence)
• Evidence of the National Insurance Number for you and your partner
• Evidence of all income for both you and your partner and any other people who live in your household (for example last five payslips if paid weekly or your last two payslips if paid monthly). Don’t worry if you haven’t got payslips, you can ask your employer to fill in a form which you can get from us or download the form
• Evidence of all capital (for example statements for all bank and building society accounts, investments, cash, property etc) for you and your partner
• Evidence of the rent you pay