we are returning to england early in the new year,i am disabled and my wife is a pensioner,does anyone know about housing and claiming housing and council tax benifits thankyou

Please check out the thread "Over 50's and 60's moving back" I think you will find some help on that site. See you there.

thanks,will do so

Once you are back here, go to your local council office, you can get the froms and information on line before you return. They will need to see your rental agreement/utility bill, or something to show you are living here, they will need your most recent UK bank statements, and will need to know that you have closed your accounts abroad. You are allowed up to 6,000 in the bank for housing benefit and council tax rebate, seems to be a set cut off limit, we started in a band A property, and got a little off CT, moved to a band C, and got a hell of a lot more, making what we pay about the same. It took less than 2 weeks from going in, to getting the benefits. Beware of the 'jobsworth' employee though, we got one, didn't make any difference to our claim, but she wanted a load of info, 'just for my files'.

I used to work as a housing and council tax benefit's assessor a while ago and have recent experience from the claimants viewpoint. The benefit is worked out differently depending on whether you're renting privately, or through a local council or housing association, who you have living with you (non dependants) and whether they are unemployed or working, and if so how many hours and their income.. if renting privately there is something called a Local Reference Rent where the Rent Officer determines what a fair rent is for the property you're renting. They'll then determine if the house is suitable for the size of you and your family. A single person with no kids for example wouldn't receive benefit based on the Local Reference Rent of a 4 bedroomed property as it would be seen as being more than they need..

Savings, income, property in the UK or abroad and bonds are also taken into account (there are more but those are the ones that spring to mind)..

Basically the government gives the Local Authorities fixed amounts that they say people in various circumstances need to live on. Then your income etc is compared and any amount you have over the 'Applicable Amount' from the government, is deducted from the full housing and council tax benefit award. When I was working there it was 65% of excess for housing benefit and 20% for council benefit, though this may have changed.

Best advice I can give is to ask the DWP for information or get in touch with the Council in the area you'll be moving to. Also the CAB offer an email advice service which I used while overseas, and I got a response in about a week.

If you need any more info just hollah, and good luck

thanks for your advice,is the 6000 per person ?

No, for the household, so of a couple, between them.