Homeless assessments

When you first approach us for assistance, your case will be allocated to a named Homelessness Officer, whose job it will be to offer you advice, information and support to help you to prevent your homelessness or relieve your homelessness if you are already homeless.

In the first instance, your named homelessness officer will carry out an assessment to establish if you are homeless or threatened with homelessness, usually by way of a face to face interview.

What we need to know

You will need to provide the homelessness officer with as much information as you are able to, in order to help them to make an assessment of our duty towards you. It is important that the information provided is timely, accurate and truthful.

There are serious consequences for anyone who deliberately withholds or falsely provides information when receiving homeless assistance.

To help you prepare for your homelessness assessment, you will need to know important information such as (note that this list is not exhaustive):

• Your immigration status (to be eligible for assistance you must normally live in the UK long term and not be subject to immigration control)
• Your personal details such as your name, date of birth and national insurance number
• Your current address (if you have one)
• Your partner or children’s details (if applicable)
• Reasons why you had to leave your current property
• Proof of your income such as wage slips, proof of benefit entitlement
• Your employment status
• Details of any support that you are receiving

You can attend your assessment interview with a representative if you want to. This might be a family member, a friend or perhaps a support worker.

Items to bring to the interview

The process will be quicker if you bring the following documents with you to the interview:

• Current tenancy agreement
• Proof of ID for yourself and anyone seeking accommodation with you such as a valid passport or full birth certificate
• Proof of income for your household such as wage slips, benefit letters, bank statements
• The contact details for your landlord
• Any notices or letters you might have received from your landlord or mortgage company
• Medical information from the medical professionals treating you such as a GP or consultant

If you do not have all of these documents to hand don’t worry, we can still start our assessment but it might take us longer to provide you with full advice.

It is important to be aware that if it becomes apparent during the course of our investigations that you have deliberately withheld or falsely provided information, we are likely to end any duty we might otherwise have had towards you.

If this happens you do have a right to request a review of the our decision to end its duty towards you, within 21 days of the decision letter.