Register to access your benefits online

Benefits Connect self-service is an online service for tenants, landlords and owner-occupiers.

There are 2 services, Housing Benefits and Landlords.

Housing Benefits

The Housing Benefits service allows tenants and owner-occupiers to:

• check details of your Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support claims;
• see how much benefit or support you are getting;
• check details of payments we have made;
• check when your next payment is due;
• find out what information we used to calculate your benefits;
• check details of any overpayments;
• view the decision letters we have sent.

Landlords

The Landlord service allows you to:

• check the status of your tenants’ claims (only for claims where the tenant has agreed to this and you're being paid their benefit directly);
• look up details of the payments we have made and any overpayments we are claiming back

You can also sign up for paperless notifications. This means we will send you an email when we make a decision on your claim. You can sign up once you have logged in, or if you are a new user, once you have registered.

If you have already registered, you do not have to register again. Just log in, add a service, then link your claim (see below). 

The same applies if you have more than one account, claim, or creditor reference number.

How to register

You will need to:

• give us your name and email address (which will be your username) to register (other personal details are optional)
• create a password (minimum 8 characters)

If you think someone else may know these details, email the revenues and benefits team straight away.

Once you’ve registered, we’ll send you an email to confirm your registered email address. You must click on the link in the email to complete your registration.

Before you can access your details online, you will need to choose the type of benefits service you want to access.

 You can choose from 'Housing Benefits' (for tenants and owner occupiers) or 'Landlord' (for landlords).

• On the ‘My Services’ page
• Select 'Add Service'
• Choose the service you want
• Select 'Continue'

To safeguard your details, we will need you to answer a number of questions in order to confirm your identity. First, you will need the reference number from the letters we send you:

for Housing Benefit/Council Tax Support: your claim number starts with '10'

for Landlords: your creditor number starts with '9' or '2'.

The questions we ask will depend on the information we hold on you, but might include:

• Your surname
• Your date of birth
• Your postcode
• Your national insurance number
• The amount and date of your last Housing Benefit payment

Please note that access to your details on the Connect service can only be given after your claim has been assessed and a decision about your entitlement has been made. Please do not try to gain access before you have received our decision on your application. 

If you do not qualify for any benefits then you will not be able to access your details on Connect. The letter we send you will explain how we reached our decision.

If you correctly answer the questions, you will have access straightaway.

If you are unable to correctly answer enough questions to verify your identity, then you can ask for a PIN to be sent to you by post. This may take up to 5 working days to arrive.

When you receive your PIN letter.

Log in using your username and password:

• Go to ‘My Services’
• Select ‘Add Service’
• Enter your reference number
• Select ‘I have been sent a PIN letter’
• Enter the PIN