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Evidence guide

If you have a claim for Council Tax Support (CTS) and/or Housing Benefit and need to report a change in your circumstances to us you may need to send us some evidence as proof of the change you are telling us about.

The type of evidence we need to see will depend on the type of change you need to tell us about.

If you are unsure what type of evidence you need to send see our guide below for further clarification.

Change in wages or earnings

If you are reporting a change in earnings and are paid weekly, we will need to see 5 of your most recent wage slips. All wage slips must be consecutive.

If you are paid fortnightly, we will need to see 3 of your most recent wage slips. All wage slips must be consecutive.

If you are paid every 4 weeks we will need to see 3 of your most recent wage slips. All wage slips must be consecutive

If you are paid calendar monthly, we will need to see 2 of your most recent wage slips. All wage slips must be consecutive.

If you are reporting a change in self-employed earnings we will need to see your latest set of self-employed accounts.

  • If you have been trading for less than 12 months you will need to complete and send to us a self-employed proforma.
  • If you use an accountant we will need to see a copy of your most recent accounts.
  • If you do your own self-assessment of your self-employed accounts we need to see the most recent self-assessment documents you sent to HMRC.

Changes in unearned income

Unearned income is any other income you get that is not from employment. You will need to send us proof for any of the following types of unearned income.

If you are reporting a change in any benefits you get, we will need to see letters as proof of the change. These are letters you are sent when you start getting a benefit, stop getting a benefit or have a change in the amount of benefit you are entitled to. Examples include

  • Child Benefit award letters
  • Benefit award letters from the DWP for PIP awards, income support (IS), JSA(c), ESA(c).)

If you a student and get a student loan and/or student grant you will need to send us

  • Letters showing the amount of grant or loan you are paid
  • How often you will get your loan and/or grant payments
  • Letters showing proof of course enrolment with the name of the University or College and the duration of the course.

If you get a private pension, we will need to see letters from all the pension providers you receive a pension from showing

  • How much pension you receive
  • The pension provider
  • The frequency you are paid this pension e.g. monthly, annually.

Other Changes

If you are reporting a change in capital and you and your partner have less than £5,500.00 total capital or £9,500.00 if you have reached pension age, we do not need you to provide proof, but you must declare all of your capital and its value.

If you have more than £5,500.00 or £9,500.00 if pension age we will need to see proof of capital like bank statements covering the last 2 months for all of your accounts.

For all other investments and capital you need to provide certificates or other official documents as proof.

If you are reporting a change in the money you pay for childcare please send us the following information

  • Details of the child care providers name, address and registration number
  • Date when you start paying for childcare
  • Names of the children who access childcare.
  • Date if you stop paying for childcare.
If you make a parental contribution to a student provide proof of the amount you have to pay.

If you are reporting a change in your rent you will need to send us your current/new tenancy agreement showing the following

  • The full name and address of your landlord.
  • Tenancy start date.
  • The amount of rent charged,
  • How frequently you pay your rent e.g. weekly, each calendar month (pcm) etc.
  • A breakdown of any services included in the rent.

If you have moved to a new house you will need to send a copy of your new tenancy agreement showing

  • the full name and address of your landlord
  • the address of the tenancy.
  • the date the tenancy started or will start.
  • the actual move in date or the date you intend to move in (this may be different to the start date of your tenancy).
  • the amount of rent you need to pay.
  • How frequently you pay your rent e.g. weekly, each calendar month etc.

A partner moving in
If you are reporting a partner moving into your household you need send us the following evidence

  • The exact date the partner moved into the household
  • Proof of their National Insurance number, such as a National Insurance number card, payslip from their current employer, letter from the DWP or HMRC, P45, P60.
  • Proof of their identity, such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport, medical card, driving licence, UK residence permit, EEC identity card.
  • Proof of all their income and capital.

A partner moving out

If a partner has moved out you need to tell us

  • The exact date your partner moved out of the household.
  • The forwarding address where they have moved.

Please complete our change in circumstances form to notify us this has happened.

If you have reported more than one change you will need to provide the evidence detailed above for each of your changes in circumstance.

If you have a change to report, tell us by completing our online form and uploading the evidence to our evidence upload page. Please see our change in circumstances page for more guidance of how to report a change.