Three numbers decide it, and the third is the one people miss. £16,000 is the ceiling. £10,000 is the floor below which savings are ignored. And the guarantee credit of Pension Credit removes the ceiling altogether, so that the question for many households over State Pension age is not how much they have saved but whether they have claimed the other benefit first.
The £16,000 limit, and the exception
GOV.UK says you will not get Housing Benefit if your savings are over £16,000, unless you get Guarantee Credit of Pension Credit (GOV.UK, Housing Benefit: eligibility, checked 1 November 2026). The DWP’s rates table for 2026/27 gives the same two figures: an upper limit of £16,000, and for people getting Housing Benefit and the guarantee credit, no limit.
That exception changes the order of the questions. Someone with £20,000 in savings and a low income may fail the Housing Benefit test outright. Once the guarantee credit is in place they pass it, because Pension Credit has no upper capital limit of its own. Our Pension Credit page explains the guarantee credit and the gap estimator shows how far from it an income sits.
The £10,000 disregard and the tariff
Below the limit, savings are turned into a weekly income figure. The rates table says the amount disregarded for Pension Credit and Housing Benefit for those above the qualifying age is £10,000, and that tariff income is £1 for every £500, or part thereof, above the amount disregarded (Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027, checked 1 November 2026).
“Or part thereof” means the step rounds up. The arithmetic at a few points:
| Savings | Above £10,000 | Counted as weekly income |
|---|---|---|
| £9,800 | nil | nil |
| £10,600 | £600 | £2 |
| £12,000 | £2,000 | £4 |
| £14,000 | £4,000 | £8 |
| £15,900 | £5,900 | £12 |
That figure is added to your pension and other income before the council measures the total against the weekly allowance on our Housing Benefit hub. Working-age claimants have a lower disregard and a steeper tariff; the pension-age figures are the ones above.
What counts as capital
The scheme counts capital in the broad sense: money in bank and building society accounts, ISAs, premium bonds, shares and other investments, and property other than the home you live in. GOV.UK’s evidence list shows how the council counts it: bank statements for the last two full months, and proof of savings and investments.
That list is on the supporting your claim page (GOV.UK, Housing Benefit: supporting your claim, checked 1 November 2026).
Income is different from capital. A pension is income; the lump sum from a pension, once taken, is capital. The value of the home you live in is not capital for this purpose at all.
When money arrives, or leaves
GOV.UK lists changes in your savings among the changes you must report (GOV.UK, Housing Benefit: report a change of circumstances, checked 1 November 2026). An inheritance, a compensation payment or the proceeds of a sale count from when they are yours. If the total crosses £16,000 and you do not have the guarantee credit, entitlement ends until it falls back below.
A new claim can be made when it does, and the three-month backdating on the hub applies to it.
Spending is the other direction, and it has a rule. Money spent on living, repairs or paying debts is gone and the tariff falls with it. Money given away or spent for the purpose of getting benefit can be treated as if you still had it — the regulations call this notional capital, and set it out in those terms (Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, regulation 47, checked 1 November 2026). That principle runs through every means-tested benefit and through care fees, and our deprivation of assets page explains how a council reasons about it.
The savings that never count
The guarantee credit is the door, and it is worth saying again in plain terms. Someone over State Pension age whose income is below £238 a week single, or £363.25 as a couple, before Housing Benefit, is in reach of Pension Credit. With the guarantee credit in payment, their savings stop being a Housing Benefit question.
GOV.UK’s Pension Credit page describes Housing Benefit as one of the things the award gives access to (GOV.UK, Pension Credit, checked 1 November 2026).
Both a Pension Credit claim and a Housing Benefit claim at pension age can be backdated three months. A household that has been sitting on £18,000 and paying full rent is not too late. Both claims can be made through the Pension Service in one call; our Pension Credit contact page has the number.
Selling a home: the property and the money are different rules
Two separate disregards apply when a home is sold, and they run on different clocks. The unsold property itself is disregarded from capital for 26 weeks while reasonable steps are taken to sell it, or longer if that is reasonable in the circumstances (Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, Sch 6, para 7, checked 1 November 2026).
Once the sale completes, the money received is disregarded for a full year from the date it is paid, as long as it is held for the sole purpose of buying or repairing another home (Sch 6, paras 18 and 20, same source).
It is worth keeping the two apart. A former home that has not yet sold is protected for 26 weeks as a piece of property, not as money. Once it has sold, the clock resets: the proceeds themselves then have their own year, separate from the property’s 26 weeks. The same one-year disregard covers money set aside for essential repairs or alterations to a home the claimant already occupies or intends to occupy (Sch 6, para 20).
A newly acquired premises, not yet moved into, has its own version of the same 26-week disregard, extendable where reasonable, to allow time to take possession and move in (Sch 6, para 1, same source). Money given away during any of these periods, rather than kept for the purpose the disregard requires, can still be treated as notional capital under regulation 47.
Inheritance, personal injury payments and the working-age contrast
An inheritance is not named in Schedule 6 as a disregarded kind of capital, unlike sale proceeds held for a new home or a personal injury payment. Once it is received, it is counted under the general rule that the whole of a claimant’s capital is taken into account (Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, regulation 44(1), checked 1 November 2026).
A personal injury payment is disregarded in full. Where the whole or part of it is administered by the High Court, the County Court, the Court of Protection, or held under a trust set up for the claimant or their partner, the whole of the amount so administered is disregarded, and the regulations state no one-year limit on that disregard, unlike sale proceeds and the other time-limited items in the same schedule (Sch 6, para 17, checked 15 September 2026).
Working-age Housing Benefit uses smaller figures throughout. The disregard is £6,000, not £10,000, and tariff income is charged at £1 for every £250 above it rather than every £500 (Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, reg 52, checked 1 November 2026). The £16,000 upper limit is the same figure at both ages; it is the disregard and the tariff step that are more generous once someone reaches State Pension age.