How much benefit will I get?
Our Benefits Calculator 
gives you an instant estimate of the help you may get with your rent (Housing Benefit only) or Council Tax Support.
This calculation is only an estimate based on the information you supply.
Your circumstances could mean that you are affected by The Benefit Cap. Please see Benefits Cap
To claim Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Support, please see our How to Claim page.
To find out about the full range of benefits available and how to claim them, visit the benefits pages of the GOV.UK website
The amount of benefit you may receive depends on the following:
- The amount of money you have coming in
- The amount of money you have in savings and investments
- Your personal circumstances (such as having children, living with a disability, who else lives in the household)
- The amount of Rent and /or Council Tax charged
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.
The amount of money you have coming in
We will add together your earnings and any other income and benefits 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.
The amount of money you have in savings and investments
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.
For Housing Benefit, if your savings are less than £6,000 we will ignore them. For every £250 (or part of £250) you have over £6,000, we add £1 to the money we count each week when working out your benefit. This is called 'tariff 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 Benefit or Council Tax Support.
Your personal circumstances
For Housing Benefits and pension-age Council Tax Support,we work out your benefit by comparing your weekly income 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 you will get. The applicable amount will be higher for some people, for example if you have a disability or have been unwell for a long time, or if you are a one parent family.
For working-age Council Tax Support, your entitlement is based on your household type and which income band you fall into.
The amount of rent and/or Council Tax charged
Housing Benefits - Council & Housing Association Tenants
The amount of Housing Benefit that you may be awarded may not necessarily be the full amount of rent that you pay to the Council or Housing Association. Please see our Housing Benefit for social housing tenants with spare bedrooms page for more information
Housing Benefits - Private Tenants
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.
Council Tax Support
The amount of Council Tax Support that you receive will be based on your Council Tax liability. If there is more than one person liable for the Council Tax at your home your entitlement may be assessed based on a % of the total charge. For example, if you rent with a friend and are joint tenants, you would each be assessed on 50% of the charge. This % will differ depending on your household makeup. Please see our Council Tax Support page for more information.