You may be entitled to an 'Extended Payment' if you have been receiving:  

• Income Support - IS
• Job Seekers Allowance - JSA - income or contributions based
• Severe Disablement Allowance - SDA
• Incapacity Benefit - IB  

for at least 26 weeks and it ends because:  

• You start work or become self-employed - working at least 16 hours each week, or
• You increase your hours and earnings and
• This new arrangement is expected to last for at least 5 weeks and
• You tell us about this within 4 weeks of the change

Extended benefit payments

The 'Extended Payment' allows us to continue to pay Housing benefit and/or Council Tax benefit for 4 weeks from the date one of the above benefits ends.

How much money will I get?

Your entitlement is calculated as if you were still receiving JSA or IS or IB or SDA. This means that your level of benefit should remain the same for the next 4 weeks, allowing you to adjust to your new circumstances.  

Claim your extended benefit 

You need to ask us to extend your benefit payment. You can call us or put your request in writing. We won't be able to extend your payments if you don’t ask us to do so.  

When to make a new claim 

After the 4 weeks, to continue receiving Housing and/ or Council Tax benefit you will need to make a new claim based on your new income.  

If a new claim is not received by the end of the 4-week extended period your benefit will stop.