Contacting Sandwell’s Revenues and Benefits service online

If you never contact Sandwell’s Revenues and Benefits service you don’t need to read this post. If you do, hopefully this will be helpful. We’ve blogged on this topic before but we still get people asking for direction, so a reminder might be useful.

Our old email addresses for customers (including landlords and our different stakeholders) to contact us were closed some time ago. You can now contact us online through our ‘MySandwell’ platform https://my.sandwell.gov.uk which covers different council services, including Revenues and Benefits.  

Use MySandwell to:

• Complete most of our forms
• Tell us about changes
• Make enquiries
• Upload documents
• Make a payment or set up a Direct Debit

There is also a blank text form for when our on-line forms don’t meet your needs. Effectively, it’s the alternative to emailing us. If you log on to MySandwell and click on ‘MyServices,’ you’ll find a contact form listed under both Housing Benefit and Council Tax with various options for your query.  If none are relevant, click through until you get to the blank text option.

Before using my MySandwell, you need to set up an account. It’s a quick one-time process. Just give your name, address and contact details. Please remember; if you are setting up the account in your work capacity, give your work contact details –- office address, work phone number and email, NOT personal ones.

MySandwell is now the only route in for ‘electronic’ messages or email to Revenues and Benefits. As we receive a very high volume of contacts, it’s essential that we manage them effectively. MySandwell helps ensure that your information or query gets to the correct Team within our service, while allowing you to share exactly the same information or ask us the same questions you might have previously done by email.  

Do please remember; however you contact us, the constraints of Data Protection still apply. If we don’t have the correct permission, we simply cannot share another person’s information with you, however legitimate your reason for asking. If possible, always try and speak to your client / tenant before contacting our service.

Oliver.

Picking your way through the minefield – the app for new tenancies.

The list of things that need to be sorted out when you give someone a new tenancy never ends. Here’s a few … Gas safety certificates, EPC, deposit protection, tenant referencing, council tax, ‘right to rent’ immigration checks, section 21s, smoke detectors and there are plenty more you can add.

Tenants need to know most of this as well as the landlord and from a landlord perspective, keeping tenants well informed helps

• tenants understand a landlord’s responsibilities
• build trust and avoid misunderstandings

So the Homestamp Consortium (which Sandwell Council is a leading member of) has just launched a new app – ‘Check before you rent.’ This takes tenants through what they need to consider when looking at a possible new home. But the app can also be a handy reminder for landlords. It’s completely free to use and you can download it from either the Apple ‘App Store’ or Google Play today.

The app is already attracting attention, featuring in news reports on local radio and we would love to know what you think about it. So please do have a look. If you have comments or questions, please send them direct to Gary Wright at gary_wright@sandwell.gov.uk