Starting work benefits and support

Extended Payment of Housing Benefit and /or Council Tax Reduction

An Extended Payment is a payment of Housing Benefit and/ or Council Tax Reduction made for a maximum of 4 weeks after you or your partner start work, increase your hours of work or earnings and, as result, you are no longer entitled to:

Income Support;
Job Seekers Allowance (income based);
Incapacity Benefit;
Severe Disability Allowance;
Or, from 27 October 2008, Employment and Support Allowance.

If you were in receipt of Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance, or Employment and Support Allowance (income related).

To be eligible for an Extended Payment you or partner must have:

Stopped getting Income Support, income based Job Seekers Allowance, or Employment and Support Allowance income related, (IS / JSAIB / ESAIR) because you or your partner have started work, increased your working hours or increased your earnings; and
Those new employment circumstances are expected to last at least five weeks; and
You and your partner have been continuously in receipt of either IS, JSAIB or ESA(IR), or a combination of these benefits, for a period of at least 26 weeks immediately before they ceased.

Unless you meet all three conditions set out above you will not be awarded an Extended Payment.

If you were in receipt of Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disability Allowance, or contributory Employment and Support Allowance.

To be eligible for an Extended Payment you or partner must have:

Stopped getting Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disability Allowance, or contributory Employment and Support Allowance (hereafter IB, SDA, ESAC), because you or your partner have started work, increased your working hours or increased your earnings; and
Those new employment circumstances are expected to last at least five weeks; and
You and your partner have been continuously in receipt of IB, SDA, ESAC either, or a combination of these benefits, for a period of at least 26 weeks immediately before they ceased; and
You must not be entitled to and not be in receipt of IB, SDA, ESAC in the last benefit week in which you were entitled to IB, SDA, ESAC.

Unless you meet all three conditions set out above you will not be awarded an Extended Payment.

If you were in receipt of Pension Credit

If you, or your partner, are in receipt of Pension Credit as well as IB, SDA, or ESAC, you will not qualify for an Extended Payment if your employment circumstances change. You will need to advise the Pension Service of your change in circumstances. Your Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction will continue to be paid at the same rate until we have your new Pension Credit award. Once we have this information we will make a decision about your Housing Benefit and/ or Council Tax Reduction

How do I claim an Extended Payment?

There is no requirement upon you to claim an Extended Payment as the Council will determine if you meet the qualifying conditions based on the information we receive from the Department for Work and Pensions.

How much Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction will I get?

The amount of Benefit you will get during an Extended Payment period will match the amount of Housing Benefit you were receiving immediately prior to your IS, JSA or ESA(IR) benefit ending.

Mortgage Interest Run On

Mortgage Interest Run On is an extra four weeks of housing costs you might get when starting work, working more hours or earning more money.

You do not have to claim. If you are eligible the Jobcentre Plus will automatically give you the Run On when you tell them about your change in circumstances.

Tax credits

You can no longer make a new claim for Tax Credits- instead, you will be signposted to Universal Credit.

The information below is for those people who have an existing Tax Credit claim

If your income is not above a certain amount and you are:

bringing up any children, you may be able to get Child Tax Credit
working, you may be able to get Working Tax Credit
bringing up any children and working, you may be able to get both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit.

New Enterprise Allowance

New Enterprise Allowance is a weekly allowance that you may be able to get for 26 weeks if you can show that you have a business idea that might work and you have been on certain benefits. You may also be able to access a loan to help with your business start-up costs:

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