There may be differences in the way changes are dealt with in your claim if you are in the working-age group or if you are in the pensioner group. You will be in the working-age group if you are under 60 or if you are over 60 but continue to receive Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance.
Change of Circumstances for Working Age Claimants
Why you must tell us about changes
When you make a claim we process it based upon your current circumstances. We will tell you the details we have used in your notification letter. If your circumstances change you must tell us.
We must change your benefit from the date your circumstances change. We will not know about these changes unless someone tells us. The law says that you must tell us of any changes you think may affect benefit.
If the change is in your favour you must inform us within one month of the change, if not your benefit will only be revised from the date you informed us. Any other change will be done from the date of the change.
Even if you are on Income Support or Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance it is up to you to tell us of any changes, not the DWP. They often tell us if your Income Support or Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance stops, but they do not have to tell us.
Our online Change of Circumstances form makes telling us about changes quick and easy.
You can write to us at:
Derby Benefits,
PO Box 1,
Council House,
Corporation Street,
Derby DE1 2FE
For more information, you can download our Change of Circumstances leaflet available in English, Hindi , Punjabi and Urdu.
English 
- 48Kb Hindi - 126Kb Punjabi - 122Kb Urdu - 480Kb
You should use the following from to tell us about a change of address:
Change of Address Form 
- 99Kb
What changes affect Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit?
The sort of changes you must tell us about as they could affect your benefit include....
- where you live
- who lives with you. This includes adults who live in your home, whether or not they are members of your family
- when Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance stops
- your child leaves school
- how much your rent is
- you or your partner go into hospital, go abroad, or are held on remand or in prison
- income goes up or down - such as earnings or pensions for you, your partner or others living with you
- savings, capital or investments – if your or your partner’s go up or down
Change of Circumstances for Pensioners
If you receive Pension Credits (Guarantee Credit and/or Savings Credit) you will need to report some changes to the Pension Service and some changes to the Council. The type of thing you will need to report to the Pension Service will be changes to your income and savings as well as changes to your household such as the death of a partner. The Pension Service will tell you on their notification letter what changes you will need to report and when.
You must still tell us about changes such as:
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changes to your rent or service charge
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changes to your household such as children or non-dependants joining or leaving
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changes to non-dependant's incomes
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if you move address
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if you receive Savings Credit only and your capital goes above £16,000.
If you are 60 or over but do not receive Pension Credits you must report all changes to us.
What happens if you do not report a change?
If Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit carries on at the same level after your circumstances have changed, we may pay too much benefit. Any Housing Benefit paid that you are not entitled to is treated as an overpayment. If we have paid you too much Council Tax Benefit, this is treated as excess benefit.
Housing Benefit overpayments
We may ask you or your landlord to repay any overpayment. The law says that we can recover most overpayments. The only overpayments we can’t recover are ones where we have made a mistake. Even if we have made a mistake, we can still ask you to repay the overpayment if you or your landlord could have known the payments should not have been made.
If you are entitled to Housing Benefit again for the same period as the overpayment, we will take the overpayment off the new payment.
For more information go to the section - How will an Overpayment be Recovered?
Excess payments of Council Tax Benefit
We will add excess payments of Council Tax Benefit on to your Council Tax Account.