Find out about changes to our services and Christmas opening times on our Festive information page. To find out when your bin will be collected over the festive period, visit Changes to County Durham bin collections at Christmas.

Due to maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 11.45am on Tuesday 24 December until 8.00am on Thursday 2 January: our online Council Tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Employability Durham - support to plan for your future

Is it time for you to start planning for your future or make a change? We can help if you're 25 or over, live in County Durham and:

are not in employment, and have not been looking for work in the last four weeks and/or are unable to start work within the next two weeks. This includes anyone:
- with a health condition and claiming a sickness benefit
- who's a carer or parent
- who's a student or a young retiree
- who's not claiming any benefits and may be supported by family or savings
are in unstable employment, for example, from zero or low hours or at risk of redundancy, and wanting to improve your circumstances

We can provide information, advice and guidance to help you at every stage of your journey to living more comfortably. If you're not yet ready to work, we can help you so that when the time comes, you're ready, prepared and confident.

Complete our Employability Durham enquiry form and one of our team will contact you. You can also contact us through a British Sign Language interpreter.