Apply for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support

Apply for housing benefit

You could get housing benefit to pay for all or part of your rent if you're unemployed or on a low income and you:

  • are of state pension age or
  • are a tenant in exempt supported or temporary accommodation

Apply for housing benefit via Open Portal

benefits calculator will help you to work out how much you might be able to claim. If you do not meet the criteria, for example if you own your own home, you may be eligible for Universal Credit.

Help with your council tax

Council tax support can help you to pay your council tax if you’re on a low income. Find out more about council tax support.

Apply for council tax support via Open Portal

If you have any questions you can email us on housing.benefits@nsdc.info or call us on 01636 650000.

Online payments

Our online payments service is provided by Civicapay. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Go to our secure payments page page to make a payment.

Appeals

If you do not agree with a decision we have made about your entitlement to benefits, or think it is wrong, you should contact us and ask for an explanation of the decision we have made.

You can also appeal and have your claim considered by an independent tribunal.

You must make either request in writing within one month of the date on your decision letter.  You can send your request to us via email at housing.benefits@newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk 

When you contact us, it’s important to be clear whether you’re asking us to look at the decision again, or whether you wish your request to be accepted as an appeal straight to an independent tribunal.

When we look at the decision again it will be looked at and checked by an officer. We will then:

  • take into consideration what you have told us
  • if the decision is wrong, we’ll change it
  • write to you and let you know what we’ve decided
  • if we decide not to change the decision, as we think it is correct, we will send you a letter explaining why

You can appeal against the decision we have made and ask us to pass your case to an independent tribunal run by the tribunal service.

You can choose to appeal to a tribunal immediately after you receive a decision notice from us, or after we have looked at the decision again and sent a letter to you explaining our reasons.

Appeal a benefit decision through the tribunal service and find out more about the process and what will happen at the hearing.