Extended Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction when you or your partner start work or increase your hours or earnings
Some benefits stop if you go back to work, start to work more hours or earn more money.
If this happens, you could get an extra four weeks of benefit to help you pay your rent.
This is called an extended payment.
Extended payments are payments of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction made for the first four weeks from when you or your partner either start work or increase your hours or earnings.
How you qualify
You or your partner has continuously received, for at least 26 weeks:
- Income Support
- Jobseekers Allowance (must be Income Based immediately before your award ends)
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Incapacity Benefit
- Severe Disablement Allowance
and:
- the job is expected to last for more than five weeks
- when the job or increased hours start, you're not getting a state pension
How to get an extended payment
You won't have to claim for an extended payment. When you tell us about changes of circumstance (you've started work or increased your wages or the hours you work), we'll check if you should get one.
What happens next
We'll write to you for details of your new or increased earned income. If you provide this well re-assess your entitlement after the extended period and you may still be entitled to benefit based on your new income.
If you dont reply we may decide that your income is too high for entitlement and stop your payments.
What you'll get
You'll normally get the same amount of Housing Benefit as you did in the last week before you started work or increased your hours.
We can still pay extended payments if you change address during the extended payment period.