Hospitalisation
If you, or anyone in your home, go into hospital and you are
receiving Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit, you , or someone
on your behalf, must tell us immediately.
- You must tell us the date that person went into hospital and,
if available, a contact name and address.
- We also need proof of any income that has reduced or
stopped as a result of a hospital stay.
- If at any time that person is discharged from hospital or it is
decided that person will not be returning home you must tell
immediately.
If you don't tell us immediately, you might lose benefit or be
paid too much benefit. If you are unable to write immediately,
you should telephone first and then write and confirm as
soon as possible.
A stay in hospital may affect your claim for benefit. For
example, this can include:
- Where a disabled person has been in hospital for four weeks (12
in the case of a child) they will lose their disability living
allowance/attendance allowance or equivalent benefit with the
result that their carer will lose their entitlement to carer's
allowance. The carer premium will continue to be used when
reassessing benefit for a further eight weeks.
- Where a carer goes into hospital, entitlement to carer's
allowance is not normally lost until after 12 weeks, after which
the carer premium will continue for a further eight weeks.
If you need further advice please contact the
Benefits Services who will be happy to help you; full
contact details are available from the Contact Us link above.