Changes in your circumstances - Overview

If you receive council tax support or housing benefit, you must tell as straight away if your situation changes. If you don’t, you may lose out on benefit or be paid too much and have to pay it back.

This includes:

• stops or starts receiving income support or income based jobseekers allowance
• stops or starts working, changes the number of hours they work or has their wages changed
• stops or starts getting any benefit, pension, tax credit or allowance
• has any other change of income or savings
• gets married, separated or dies
• comes to live in, or leaves your home
• leaves school
• moves home or changes rooms in a house you share with other people

How to report a change in your circumstances

Please use our benefits calculator to see how your change in circumstances may affect your benefit.

To tell us about a change in your circumstances, you will need to complete the following online form.

Report a change in your circumstances

What happens if you don't tell us?

You should also let us know immediately if your circumstances change as any overpayment must be paid back to the council.

When reporting a change, your claim will be suspended until all information required is provided. 

Once the information requested has been provided to us, your claim will be amended and any benefit that is owed as a result of the recalculation will be paid to you.

However, this will only happen if all information is provided within one month of the change being reported. 

Customers of state pension age

If you receive pension credit guarantee or pension savings credit, you must complete a change of circumstances form for those receiving pension credit if:

• any absence from your home, which is likely to be for more than 13 weeks
• if a non-dependant moves in or out of your home.
• if the income of a non-dependant changes
• rent increase (not applicable if you are a Portsmouth City Council tenant)
• change to your tenancy conditions (not applicable if you are a Portsmouth City Council tenant)

If you only receive pension savings credit, you should complete the change of circumstances form for those receiving pension credit if:

• if you start or stop getting child benefit
• your capital exceeds £16,000 
• changes to the income or capital of partner not included in the pension credit claim