Income, benefits and Pension Credit

Your income may affect how much Pension Credit you can get. Find out how your income may affect Pension Credit and how you can learn if you are missing out on benefits.

Income counted towards Pension Credit

When you apply for Pension Credit your income is calculated. If you have a partner, your income is calculated together.

The term ‘partner’ refers to your husband, wife or civil partner, or the person you live with as if they were your husband, wife or civil partner.

Pension Credit tops up

your weekly income to £182.60 if you’re single
your joint weekly income to £278.70 if you have a partner

If your income is higher, you might still be eligible for Pension Credit if you have a disability, you care for someone, you have savings or you have housing costs.

What counts as income

Your income includes

State Pension
other pensions
most social security benefits for example Carer's Allowance
earnings from employment and self-employment

Your savings and investments

If you have £10,000 or less in savings and investments this will not affect your Pension Credit
If you have more than £10,000, every £500 over £10,000 counts as £1 income a week. For example, if you have £11,000 in savings, this counts as £2 income a week

Private or workplace pension

If you're entitled to a private or workplace pension, the amount you'd expect to get is calculated as income from the date you were able to get it, if you had claimed it.

If you’ve deferred your pension

If you’re entitled to a personal or workplace pension and you have not claimed it yet, the amount you’d expect to get still counts as income.

If you’ve deferred your State Pension, the amount of State Pension you would get is counted as income.

You cannot build up extra amounts for deferring your State Pension if you or your partner are getting Pension Credit.

Income not counted towards Pension Credit

Not all benefits are counted as income. For example, the following are not counted:

Adult Disability Payment
Attendance Allowance
Christmas Bonus
Child Benefit
Disability Living Allowance
Personal Independence Payment
social fund payments like Winter Fuel Allowance
Housing Benefit

Further information is available at the links below, about the following benefits:

You can still get Pension Credit if you are living with your family. The Northern Ireland Pension Centre looks at your income, not theirs. You can still get Pension Credit if you own your own home: the home you live in does not count as ‘capital’.

Cost of Living Support Payment

A Cost of Living Support package has been put in place for 2022 that includes one-off payments to those on income related benefits, disabled claimants and pensioners. These payments are intended to provide support with the current rise in the cost of living.

You may be eligible for one, or more, of these Cost of Living Support Payments if you get or had started a claim for Income benefits and Pension Credit on 25 May 2022.

Find out more about Cost of Living support

If your circumstances change

If your circumstances change, for example your capital goes up or down, you should contact the Northern Ireland Pension Centre. They can look at your claim again to make sure you are getting the right amount of Pension Credit.

Northern Ireland Pension Centre

If you disagree with a decision

If you are refused Pension Credit or think it has been calculated wrongly, ask the Northern Ireland Pension Centre to look at the decision again. If you are still unhappy with the outcome, you can appeal to an independent tribunal.

Unclaimed benefits

If you think you're missing out on benefits, contact the 'Make the call' phone line and a benefits adviser will provide a full assessment of your entitlement. Go to the link below for contact details:

Unclaimed benefits

Help with claiming benefits

Some people need help with claiming benefits because they can’t manage their own affairs. This could be because they’re mentally incapable or are severely disabled. If so, another person - called an appointee - can be given the legal right to act for them.

Find out about becoming an appointee:

Becoming an appointee for Social security benefits

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