You’ve made a new claim for benefit - what happens next?

You have been given a receipt which shows the date you made your claim and whether or not your claim is complete.             

If your claim is complete

We aim to process your claim within 10 working days of receipt.  You will then get a letter telling you how much housing and/or council tax benefit you are entitled to.  When you get the letter please read it carefully and let us know right away if you think any of the information is wrong.   Sometimes we may need some more information before we can process your claim, if we do need any more information we will telephone or write to you to tell you what we need. 

If your claim is incomplete

You need to provide some more information before we can process your claim.  The receipt you have been given tells you what you need to bring in.  Remember - we can’t work out how much benefit you should get without this information.  If you haven’t got the information we have asked for please tell us right away and we will try to help (see below for how to contact us).

Please bring the information in as soon as you can.  We aim to process your claim within 10 working days of receiving all the information.  If you don’t bring in all the information within a month you may not get any benefit and you will have to pay full rent and/or council tax.
Please Remember

You must tell us right away if anything changes that might mean your benefit is wrong. If you need to tell us about a change you can:-  

  • Call into any of our One Stop Shops
  • Telephone us on 0151 443 4042
  • e-mail us at Benefits@knowsley.gov.uk
  • Write to us at Cherryfield Drive, Kirkby, L32 1TX

Our Customer Promise

We promise to:

  • Give you the right information to make it clear what you can expect from us and what you need to do in return.
  • Do our best to help you, listen to you and make sure you feel comfortable dealing with us.
  • Explain why decisions have been made about your claim and what will happen next if it is not what you hoped for.
  • Deal with your claim as quickly as we can.  We will tell you how long it will take and do our best to keep to the time we have said.
  • Make sure that you can contact us in ways that are simple and easy to understand.  We will tell you about other services that may help you.
  • Protect your personal information.
  • Use your feedback to help improve our service.
  • Take any complaints seriously, our leaflets, website or staff can explain how to complain.
  • Protect public money – we will not tolerate fraud.
  • Measure how well we meet these standards and publish the results.

We expect you to:

  • Tell us whenever your personal or household circumstances change.
  • Treat our staff with courtesy.
  • Keep any appointment you have with us, or let us know as soon as possible if you cannot.
  • Tell us if you need to communicate with us in a different way.

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