Apply for housing and council tax benefits

Information about how to apply and notify the Council of changes to your circumstances.

You can now apply and notify the Council of changes to your circumstances either face to face or over the telephone without the need for a signature.

This can be done as follows:

Solihull Connect Walk-In Centre- you can apply for Housing and Council Tax Benefit or tell us of changes to your circumstances in one of our Solihull Connect walk in centres, without having to complete a hand written form. We will complete the form electronically for you.

Home visit - If you are not able to come into one of our offices, you can apply for Housing and Council Tax Benefit or tell us of changes to your circumstances through a home visit. Please book an appointment. We will complete an electronic application form for you without you having to complete a hand written form. You will need to give us information about your finances and household.

We will take photographs of all your evidence, so there will be no need for you to come into one of our offices.

We can only finally calculate your claim once you have provided evidence of your identity, income and capital.

How will I know the Council has received my claim?

Once the claim has been completed, it has officially been received by us. When the application form is completed, you will be given an Evidence Checklist, by the officer listing the evidence you will need to provide so we can assess your claim.

The Evidence Checklist contains the date the application was received by us for your records. We will also give you a provisional Entitlement Calculation sheet, giving you your likely entitlement based on the information you have provided.

If you do not provide this evidence quickly you will delay the assessment. This may prevent us from awarding benefit you may be entitled to.

The places were you can complete a face to face application:

More information on opening times for Solihull Connect Customer Contact Service.

I still want to complete a paper form, can I do this?

Yes - you can complete a written application form either by yourself or with help from a member of our staff.

I want to telephone to request a form

You can ring a 0121 704 6214 and ask us to send you a form.

I want to collect a form

You can call into any one of the walk-in centres

How else can I claim benefit other than by completing a written form?

Teleclaims: you can apply for Housing and Council Tax Benefit over the phone by ringing 0121 704 6214. We will ring you back at a convenient time to complete the claim.

The claim will not be classed as complete, until you have provided original evidence of identity, capital and income. You can do this by calling into one of our walk-in centres with your original documents. If you are not able to get into a walk-in centre, you can request a home visit.

What are the best ways to make a claim?

Walk-In centre: call into one of our offices and complete a face to face claim with a member of our team. We scan all the evidence you provide. When the evidence is received on our system a member of our team can begin the calculation process.

Teleclaims: complete a claim over the telephone and provide the supporting evidence.

Home Visit: If you are unable to come into the office, we can book an appointment for a home visit where we will complete an electronic application for you. We will photograph your evidence.

We can only finally calculate your claim once you have provided evidence of your identity, income and capital. The quicker you provide the evidence, the sooner we can calculate your entitlement to Housing and Council Tax Benefit.