Understanding your benefit decision notice

We know that benefit decision notices can be difficult to understand.

By law, these notices must include a lot of detailed information about our decisions.

To help, use the guide below for an explanation of common terms we use.

Common terms

• Claim reference or claim number: Your unique reference number, found at the top of the notice. You'll need this if you contact us about your claim.
• Reason for calculation: Explains why we calculated your benefit award and sent the notice to you.
• Weekly benefit award: The amount of benefit you'll get each week before any deductions.
• Overpayment recovery: If you've been overpaid Housing Benefit, we may recover this by deducting from your entitlement. The notice shows the weekly deduction amount.
• Net benefit payable: The actual amount of benefit you'll receive each week.
• Weekly gross rent or Council Tax: The total amount of rent or Council Tax your benefit is based on.
• The benefit starts on: The date your benefit starts, covering the period stated in the notice.
• Weekly eligible rent: The amount of your rent we use when calculating your benefit.
• Weekly ineligible service charges: Costs included in your rent, such as fuel and water rates, which are not covered by your benefit.