Benefits - evidence you may need to provide

If you apply for a benefit and we ask you to provide further evidence or information this page tells you what you need to show us.

The quicker you get the evidence we’ve requested to us, the faster we’ll be able to process your claim and make any payment of benefit.

How to get documents to us

The quickest way to get the documents to us is to take them to one of our Customer Service Points across the city.

We cannot accept documents by email.

We don’t recommend posting original documents to us because of the risk that they may be delayed or lost in the postal system.

If you are housebound or have mobility issues we may be able to visit you at home and collect the information we need. Please call us on 0117 922 2300 to discuss what we can do.

National Insurance number

It’s important that you provide a National Insurance number for both you and for your partner.

One of the following should have a your National Insurance number on it:

• A letter about your, or your partner’s, state benefits or tax credits
• A payslip
• A National Insurance number card

Earnings

It’s important that you send us the right evidence. This depends on how often you are paid:

• If you are paid monthly, then please provide your most recent, consecutive four payslips.
• If you are paid weekly, please provide your most recent, consecutive five payslips.
• If you are paid every two weeks, please provide your most recent, consecutive three payslips.
• If you do not have the right number of payslips, then you can ask your employer to complete an Earnings Confirmation form (pdf, 159 KB) and return this to us.
• If you are self-employed, we will contact you to explain what we need from you. Normally we will need to see your most recent set of annual accounts showing the amount you have earned and the amount you have paid out as business expenses. We will use this information to work out how much income should be used to assess your claim. If you have a set of accounts to hand, you should let us have them as quickly as possible.

Rent

We only need to see evidence if you rent your home from a private landlord, letting agency or Housing Association.

You could provide any of the following:

• Your most recent tenancy agreement
• A letter or rent book from your landlord showing:
       - the date your tenancy started
       - how much rent you have to pay
       - how often your rent needs to be paid  

Benefits

You will not need to supply evidence of:

• Income Support
• Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA)
• Employment Support Allowance (ESA)
• Tax Credits
• Pension Credits
• Disability Benefits

We will be able to check these benefits ourselves. If we've asked you to provide evidence of benefits, this is likely to mean Child Benefit, which are not able to check.

If you've been asked to provide evidence of benefits you will need to do so on behalf of you and your partner, as well as other adults and children who live with you..

As long as the amount paid and the person who gets the benefit is clear, you could provide either:

• A current award notice
• A letter from the Government agency who pays the benefit
• A recent bank statement showing the benefit being paid.

Pensions

If you or your partner receive Pension Credit then you do not need to provide any further evidence about your income or savings.

If you have any private pensions, please provide us with your most recent bank or pension statement showing the amount paid; the name of the person its paid to and how often it is paid.

Capital (things such as bank accounts, savings and investments)

You do not need to provide any evidence of your capital if you're getting:

• Pension Credit
• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance

Otherwise, if you are a pensioner, you do not need to provide any evidence if the total in your bank account plus any savings or investments is less than £10,000.

If you are not a pensioner, you do not need to provide any evidence if the total in your bank account plus any savings or investments is less than £6,000.

If you need to provide evidence, then we need to see:

• The two most recent, consecutive statements for each bank, savings or ISA accounts
• Any Post Office or building society books or statements
• Any Premium Bond certificates
• Any National Savings certificates
• Any share certificates showing the number of shares

Money paid out

We only need to see evidence where you or your partner:

• pay towards a private pension or annuity that isn't deducted on your pay slip
• pay for child care charges to a register childminder
• contribute to the upkeep of a student.

If the payment is for private pension, we need to see documents that show that the contributions are to a private pension, how often they are made and how much they will be.

If the payment is for child care charges, please provide the receipts or invoices from your childminder covering the last five weeks.

If you or your partner pay towards the upkeep of a student, please provide documents showing that your contribution has been used in the assessment of the student's loan or grant.