Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Email: comments@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01235 520202

Vale of White Horse District Council

What to do if your circumstances change

Your benefit entitlement is based on the information you provide on your application form. You MUST inform us if any of these details change.   

Housing and Council Tax benefits are social security payments and are calculated on a weekly basis. This means you must tell us about any changes immediately. This includes changes in income, capital and the people who live with you. If you are not sure whether the change will affect your benefit then tell us any way.   

If you forget to tell us about a change and it reduces your benefit you will owe us money and will have to pay it back, so to avoid a large bill later tell us about changes as soon as they happen.   

You must inform the Benefits Department using the contact details on the right about any changes that will increase your benefit within one calendar month of the changes happening or you may lose benefits. If you are overpaid we may recover this. 

You can inform us of your changes in circumstances using the form on the right of the page which you can either complete on your computer and print off, or print it off and then fill it in by hand. Please send this form to:

Benefits Section
Vale of White Horse District Council
PO Box 880
Bromley
BR1 9EE      

Examples of changes which must be reported include:

• If you or your partner stop or start work, even if you get less money
• If you or your partner go into hospital for more than six weeks
• Change of address or change in the room which is rented
• If the rent you are charged by your landlord changes
• If you or your partner's wages go up or down
• If you or your partner's savings change
• If you are awarded or have a change in a private pension
• If you marry, separate or divorce
• Any changes in payments received from sub-tenants, lodgers or boarders
• If there is a change in the number of people who live with you
• If you become entitled to or lose entitlement of any state benefits including any disability allowances
• If any of your children leave school or you have another child
• If other adults living with you start or stop working
• If the wages of other adults go up or down
• If you or your partner stop or start receiving Income Support or Income Based Jobseekers Allowance.
• If you or your partner receive any payments for backdated awards of pensions, benefits or any other lump sums.

It is important that you report a change from Income Support to Jobseekers Allowance immediately because this may affect the amount of Housing or Council Tax Benefit awarded.  It is not the responsibility of the Benefit Agency to report this change.  A new claim for housing or Council Tax Benefit must be made and this may not be backdated to the date of the change from Income Support to Jobseekers Allowance if there has been a delay in notifying us of this change.

You must also tell us if any benefits you get for sickness, disability, maternity, start or stop or increase, even if you get money from another benefit. This is important because there are time limits for making claims. Please tell us at once about any changes and we will tell you if you need to make a new claim.