What evidence we need from you

What type of evidence we need from you

Please give us the following items when you start a claim in order to help speed up your benefit payment to help with your rent and Council Tax.

Evidence of your identity and, if you have a partner, evidence of their identity

Evidence of identity can be any of the following:

• Birth, marriage or civil partnership certificate; or divorce, annulment, separation or ending of a civil partnership papers in your current name. If your name has changed because of marriage or civil partnership, provide your marriage or civil partnership certificate as well
• Current passport
• Current EEA Identity Card
• Medical card or television licence in your name
• Gas, electricity, water or phone bill in your name, received within the last three months
• Current full or provisional driving licence (photo card or paper)
• Credit card, debit card or cash card
• Bank or building society statement or passbook
• Certificate of employment in HM Forces or Merchant Navy
• Letter from a solicitor, social worker, probation officer, doctor or HM Revenue and Customs
• Letter from the Home Office about immigration status
• Residence permit, Police Registration Certificate, Immigration and Nationality Directorate travel document, standard acknowledgement letter or Application Registration Card

These are examples, not a full list. We need one document for you and one of your partner, if you have a partner. You can also use any of the documents in the list of evidence of National Insurance number to confirm your identity, as long as it is a different document from the one you use to confirm your National Insurance number.

Evidence of your National Insurance number and, if you have a partner, evidence of their National Insurance number.

Evidence of your National Insurance number (NiNo) can be one of the following:   

• P45 or P60
• Letter from HM Revenue and Customs about tax or tax credit
• Banks statements showing payments by direct debit for class-2 National Insurance contributions, or benefit payments received showing your NiNo on the statement, for example, State Pension
• Payslips, salary statement or works pension statement (as long as it shows your NiNO)
• Letter from the Pension Service or Jobcentre Plus has sent to you (not handwritten)
• NINO card (not handwritten)

These are examples, not a full list. We need one document to confirm your National Insurance number and one to confirm your partner’s National Insurance number, if you have a partner.

Evidence of your income and capital and, if you have a partner, evidence of their income

Evidence of income and capital can be any of the following:

• Payslips. For you and your partner these must be for the last five weeks if you are paid weekly, or the last two months if you are paid monthly. All payslips must follow each other, with no gaps. For other people living with you, we can accept payslips for the last two weeks if they are paid weekly, or the last month if they are paid monthly
• Your latest pension statement, student financial support notice or latest trading accounts
• Your latest Child Benefit award letter from the Child Benefit Office, showing your current address, or your recent bank or building society statement showing payment of Child Benefit. We don't count your income from Child Benefit, but we need evidence that you get Child Benefit for your dependent children so that we know they are part of your household
• Your latest benefit award letter from Jobcentre Plus or the Pension Service, or tax credit award letter from HM Revenue and Customs
• Bank, building society or post office account passbooks or statements. Statements must show all transactions for the last two full months. We can accept internet banking statements printed by you if they include the website address, name of the account holder, account number and sort code. We can't accept mini statements that just show a balance. For a post office card account we will accept just your latest statement
• Share certificates or dividend statements for stocks, shares or bonds

These are examples, not a full list.

Evidence of your rent if you pay rent to a private landlord or a housing association.

We also need the name and address of the owner of the property. If your landlord is an agency or agent who manages the property for someone else, we need both the managing agent’s name and address and the owner’s name and address.

Evidence of rent can be any of the following:   

• Your tenancy agreement
• Your rent book
• Letter from your landlord
• Letter from your agent

The evidence of rent must include the following information:

• The full name and business or home address of the owner of the property
• The full name and business address of any managing agent
• The date the agreement started
• The amount of current rent you are charged
• Details of what is included in the rent, for example, heating, lighting, cleaning, water rates, meals, personal care, general counselling and support
• How often you must pay the rent, for example, every week, every month, every four weeks

Do not send valuable documents through the post. Upload a scanned copy or a photo and attach it to the online form.

Don’t delay making your claim, even if you haven’t got all the evidence now. Please make sure we receive the evidence quickly. If you don’t get the evidence to us within a month, we may not be able to pay you and benefit at all, so tell us if you are having problems getting your evidence.