It is vital that we receive documents and evidence to support your Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claim - whether you are making a new claim or your circumstances have changed.

Original Documentation

We must see the original documents and not copies. Documents with information blanked out or missing will not be accepted, as we need to ensure that the information you have provided for your claim is correct.

Providing Your Information

You can provide your documents to us direct in the following ways:

By Post

Send them to:

The Benefits Service
Swindon Borough Council
Admail 4144
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN3 5ZR

In Person

Bring the information in to our offices at:

Swindon Direct
Swindon Borough Council
Beckhampton Street
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN1 2JH

If you rent your home from any of the following Housing Associations:

• Sarcen
• Bromford
• Jephson
• Sovereign

or the Salvation Army, your documents can be verified at your Housing Association's local office.  Please contact them for more details.

Documents to Support Your Claim

For every new Benefit claim, we must see evidence to prove your identity; national insurance number; rent and residence; earnings; savings and investments and regular outgoings.  To help you ensure you have all the documents you need, you can download the Housing and Council Tax Benefit New Claim Evidence Checklist.

If you Have Charges Included in Your Rent

We will also need to see documents showing how much rent you have to pay and what charges are included in the rent you pay.  For example, if your water, electricity, gas or services, such as meals or laundry is included in your rent, we will not be able to give you Housing Benefit to cover these charges.  However, if your rent includes charges for things such as the maintenance, cleaning and lighting of shared areas, e.g. staircases and landings, we may be able to give you Housing Benefit to help cover this.

If you are Self-employed

If you are self-employed, we must see evidence showing your business and earnings.  We will need to see the accounts for the last financial year.  Please click on this link to complete the Self Employment Earnings form.

If You Have Non-dependents

Non-dependents are people who live in your home and tend to be adult relatives (such as adult sons or daughters) or adult friends.

They are not the following:

• Your partner
• A child or young person who still receives Child Benefit
• A foster child / young person living in your property
• A boarder
• A joint tenant, tenant or sub-tenant
• A carer

If you have non-dependents, we will need to see the documents regarding the amount of income they receive. This is important, as the amount of income your non-dependent receives can affect the amount of benefit you receive.  Non-dependents are expected to contribute to the household bills and costs.

N.B.  If you do not provide evidence of your non-dependent's income, we will have to make assumptions around their income, which may reduce the amount of benefit you could be entitled to.

Examples of the type of evidence we would need to see, include wage slips.  If the non-dependent claims any benefits, such as Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment Support Allowance or Income Support, please provide evidence of their National Insurance Number and we can check how much income they receive from these benefits.

If You Pay Childcare Costs

If you pay childcare costs, it is important that we see documents supporting this.  It means we can disregard £175.00 of your earnings if your costs relate to a single child, or £300.00 if you pay childcare costs for two or more children; until the first Monday in the September after their 15th birthday, or if you receive Disabled Child Premium until their 16th birthday.  This means you could be entitled to more benefit.

Documents you need to provide to show us that you pay childcare costs, include the registration number of the childminder or nursery or pre-school your child attends, and a copy of the contract between yourself and the childcare provider.