How does Pension Credit affect Hosuing Benefit?

Answer 1

Housing benefit is calculated on how much money you have coming in. It doesnt matter what source that money comes from.
The more money you have, the less housing benefit you will let basically

Answer 2

There are two types of Pension Credit:

If the Department for Work and Pensions award you Pension Credit (Guaranteed Credit) - PCGC, then the local authority will pay FULL housing benefit (to a maximum decided by the rent office in most authorities).

It is the equivalent of Income Support for those over 60 ie. you are paid enough to live on (131.95 I think for 65+, a bit less for 60-64). Full rent and council tax should be paid for by the local authority.

Crucailly (for housing benefit purposes) you get FULL housing and council tax benefit if you are awarded ANY amount of PCGC. This is even if you have capital (savings) over the usual 16,000 limit for housing benefit (and yes it is possible to be awarded PCGC with this much savings!). The amount of PCGC may be fairly low as the capital is taken into account.

Pension Credit (Saving Credit) - PCSC - is paid to those who have capital (savings) and is supposed to encourage us all to save up for retirement. It's for those who are 65+ only.

If you are awarded PCSC, the local authority will take into account this extra money and if it takes you over the weekly income threshold, you will receive less benefit toward your rent.

The Pension Service provide the local authority with their workings out regarging income etc and so it makes applying for housing and council tax benefit a bit easier - less documents to bring in.

The local authority also allows pensioners to keep more of their money (by having higher thresholds before reducing benefit) for those receiving PCSC.

--- Both PCSC and PCGC can be awarded together ---


If you think you could benefit, please call the Pension Service on (freephone) 0800 99 1234, an application can be made by phone.