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Our Benefits Calculator 
gives you an instant estimate of the help you may get with your rent or Council Tax. If you haven't claimed pension credits yet it can also tell you how much help you may get from these payments. This calculation is only an estimate based on the information you supply.
To claim Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Support, please see our How to Claim page.
To claim pension credits, you must contact the Pension Service .
To find out about the full range of benefits available and how to claim them, visit the benefits pages of the GOV.UK website
If you receive the Guarantee element of Pension Credit you will generally receive the maximum Housing Benefit that can be awarded. If you have friends, relatives or anyone over 18 living in your home, a deduction will generally be made from your benefit. See our page 'Other people living with you' for more information.
If you do not receive the Guarantee element of Pension Credit we will need to know how much money you have coming in to calculate your entitlement.
We will add together your earnings and any other income you have (including your partner's income, if you have one). We will also need to have income details for any other people living with you.
Savings and investments include such things as bank or building society deposits, stocks, shares, and other investments. We add together your savings and capital with your partner's.
If your savings are £10,000 or less we will ignore them. for every £500 (or part of £500) you have over £10,000, we add £1 to the money we count each week when working out your benefit. This is called 'tarriff income'.
If you have savings and investments, either separately or jointly with your partner, worth more than £16,000, you will not be entitled to Housing or Council Tax Support.
We work out your benefit by comparing the money you get each week with your 'applicable amount' which is the amount the Government says you need to live on each week. Every year the Government sets the levels of personal allowances and premiums which make up your 'applicable amount' and we must use this to work out how much Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support you will get. The applicable amount will be higher for some people, for example if you have a disability.
The amount of Housing Benefit that you may receive will be based on your rental liability.
The amount of Housing Benefit that you may be awarded may not necessarily be the full amount of rent that you pay to your landlord. Please see our section on Private Tenants for more information.
The amount of Council Tax Support that you may receive will be based on your Council Tax liability.
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