Housing and Council Tax Benefit

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are Government schemes to help people on low incomes meet their rent and council tax bills. Housing and Council Tax Benefit are administered by Reading Borough Council.

We want to provide a speedy and accurate service and make it easy for you to enquire about benefits.

We aim to make a decision on your benefit within an average of 22 days when you make a new claim. When you tell us about changes that affect your benefit we aim to make those changes within 8 days of you telling us about them.

In December 2011 we made decisions on new claims in, on average, 17 days.  We made changes in, on average, 11 days.

Important changes to Housing and Council Tax Benefit from April 2011

From April 2011, changes affecting mainly private tenants whose Housing Benefit claims are assessed under the Local Housing Allowance rules will come into force. There are also increases to all Housing and Council Tax Benefit non-dependant deductions and new provision that allows for an extra bedroom to be included in the Housing Benefit assessment for tenants in the private rented sector who have care provided by someone who lives elsewhere.

For more information on how these changes might affect you visit our "Changes to Housing and Council Tax Benefits " page.