Welcome To Wirral

You must tell us about any changes in your circumstances. This could be things like:

• You change your address (you will need to complete a new claim form)
• Your income, or the income of anyone who lives with you, goes up or down, or you move from one type of benefit to another (e.g. incapacity benefit to a pension)
• Your savings or capital, or the savings or capital of anyone you lives with, goes up or down
• You, or anyone you live with, stop getting Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (including if you become sick and start submitting medical evidence)
• You, or anyone you live with, start getting Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
• You, or anyone you live with, start work or change jobs
• You, or anyone you live with, goes into hospital
• Anyone joins or leaves your household (for example the birth of a baby)
• You, or anyone you live with, starts or leaves full-time education
• The terms of your tenancy or the rent you pay to a private landlord changes
• You, or anyone you live with, start getting a private pension (including from this Council)

You do not need to tell us about changes in the amount of Income Support of income-based Job Seekers Allowance, or about your April increase in state benefits. You also do not need to tell us about your rent increase if you rent your home from a housing association.

If you do not tell us about changes immediately, we will not be able to backdate the change if it leads to an increase in your Housing Benefit. This means that you will lose out on Housing Benefit to which you would otherwise have been entitled.

However we must recalculate your Housing Benefit from the date the change occurred if the change leads to a reduction in your entitlement. This means that we will ask you to pay back any benefit to which you were not entitled.

Wirral Council may take action against you if you give us information that is incorrect or incomplete.

To report your change(s) please see Change of Circumstance form in the related links section, complete, sign and return it to the Housing Benefit Section at PO Box 2, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 6BU.

You will need to provide documentary evidence of the change (for example wage slips if you have started working or a new tenancy agreement or letter from your landlord if your rent has increased.) We must see original documents, not copies.

If you are not sure what evidence you should provide or need a new claim form, please telephone 0151 606 2002 or call at one of our One Stop Shops for assistance (See Council Offices in the related links section).