Universal Credit: updating rent and service charges

Let Universal Credit know when your rent and service charge change

Let Universal Credit (UC) know when your rent and service charge changes

Your weekly or monthly rent and service charges are reviewed annually and usually change on 1 April for both monthly and weekly tenancies. You will always receive a letter from us to let you know about these changes.

It is important to let Universal Credit know about these changes straight away to make sure you get paid the right amount of Universal Credit. If you are late reporting changes, Universal Credits will not usually backdate them, and you could lose out on money you are entitled to.

Report changes from 1 April and not before

Doing this early could impact your claim and result in duplicate requests being required.

What do I need to do?

When you log into your UC account on 1 April, there should be a new message in your to-do list that asks you to report any changes to your housing costs. Complete this as soon as you can. Follow these steps:

  • You will have received a message telling you that you have a task to complete or logged in on 1 April
  • Sign into your Universal Credit account
  • Click on your to-do List and you should have a task to ‘report changes to your housing costs’
  • Click on ‘report changes to your housing costs’

It will only allow you to notify changes to your housing costs; you will not be able to use it to declare any other changes of circumstances.

Date Of Change

Date of change

You will answer Yes to this question.

Changes To Your Rent

Rent

This will ask if you are still charged weekly or monthly for your rent.

When you pay your rent will not have changed, so you will answer Yes to this.

You will then be asked for your new rent. You can get this information from your annual rent change letter sent to you.

Weekly Service Charge

Eligible service charges

This will ask if you are still charged weekly or monthly for your service charges.

Again, when you pay your service charge will not have changed, so you will answer Yes to this.

You will then need to confirm the amount of your new service charges per week or month. You can get this information from your annual rent change letter sent to you.

 

Frequently asked questions

Help us improve our website. Did you find this web page useful?

The information we receive from this form is anonymous. This means we can't get back in touch. If you need our help, please get in touch.