Universal Credit is now replacing Housing Benefit for working age people in Cornwall.
Please check whether you are eligible to receive;
Online benefits calculator
You can use our online calculator to check whether you’re entitled to housing benefit or council tax support.Benefits calculator
The calculator only provides an estimate, not the exact housing benefit or council tax support you’ll get.
We’ll tell you exactly how much housing benefit or council tax support you are entitled to when we’ve looked at your claim form.
Applicable amount
The more income you have, the less benefit you get. The Government sets the minimum amount that you and your family need to live on each year. This is called the applicable amount. If your income is more than your applicable amount, you will get less housing benefit and council tax support.
It’s made up of:
- Personal allowance
- Dependants allowance
- Premiums
Personal allowance
Your applicable amount will always include a personal allowance. There are different amounts of personal allowance based on your age and whether you are single, married, living together as a couple or a lone parent.
Dependants allowance
If you’re looking after children (other than foster children), your applicable amount will include an allowance for each child. The allowance continues as long as you get child benefit for the child. From 6 April 2017 the Housing Benefit applicable amount is usually restricted to a maximum of two children. The restriction will only apply to Housing benefit claims, and not Council Tax Support claims.
Premiums
Your applicable amount may include a premium for:
- Having a disability
- Being of pensionable age
- Caring for someone
- Being a family
Income, earnings and capital
Your housing benefit will be reduced by 65% of any income over your applicable amount. Your council tax support will be reduced by 20% of any income over your applicable amount.
If you live with your partner, your housing benefit and council tax support will be based on your joint income and capital. This also applies to couples in a civil partnership.
Income and earnings
Income is all the money you receive in one week. This includes earnings, pensions, tax credits, other benefits and an assumed income from savings.
Some benefits are completely ignored, such as attendance allowance, disability living allowance and personal independence payments. We also ignore 100% of war disablement and war widows pensions, the decision to fully disregard war pensions is a local policy agreed by Cornwall Council.
Earnings include money you receive from employment and self employment. We take off income tax, national insurance and half of any pension contributions you pay. We can also ignore at least £5 of your earnings.
Capital
Capital is all your savings, investments and the value of any property or land you own but don’t live in. The rules about capital can be complicated but as a general rule:
- If you are of working age and have £6,000 or more you won’t get council tax support. If you have £16,000 or more you won’t get housing benefit.
- If you are of working age, any savings you have under £6,000 will be ignored when we assess your claim. If you have savings between £6,000 and £16,000 each £250 (or part of £250) will count as producing £1 income a week.
- If you are of pensionable age, any savings you have under £10,000 will be ignored when we look at your claim. If you have savings between £10,000 and £16,000 each £500 (or part of £500) will count as producing £1 income a week.
- If you are of pension age and have £16,000 or more you will only get housing benefit or council tax support if you are receiving guaranteed pension credit.
Make an appeal
If you think your benefit hasn’t been calculated correctly, see;
