Three beliefs stop people claiming Pension Credit: that savings rule them out, that owning a home rules them out, or that the weekly figure is too small to be worth the paperwork. All three are mistakes, and the third is the most expensive of them.
What Pension Credit actually does
Pension Credit sets a floor under your weekly income and pays the difference between what you have and that floor. It is not a pension and it is not related to your National Insurance record. It is separate from the State Pension, and you can receive both at once.
The floor is £238 a week if you are single, and £363.25 a week if you have a partner (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: what you'll get, checked 1 November 2026). If your income is below that, Pension Credit makes up the shortfall. To qualify, you must have reached State Pension age and live in England, Scotland or Wales (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
Because it works on the gap rather than on a threshold, a small shortfall produces a small award. Our gap estimator shows your income beside the floor your own circumstances produce. Stopping at the weekly figure would be a mistake, because the other help that follows from getting any award could be worth more.
The two parts, and who each is for
Pension Credit comes in two parts. Guarantee Credit tops your income up to the floor, and Savings Credit is a smaller separate payment closed to anyone who reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016. For most people reaching pension age now, Guarantee Credit is the whole of it.
Where Savings Credit is paid, it is worth up to £17.96 a week if you are single and up to £20.10 a week if you have a partner (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: what you'll get, checked 1 November 2026).
Our guide to how much Pension Credit pays sets out both parts, what each is worth, and the four additions that can raise the figure your income is measured against.
Can you get Pension Credit if you have savings?
There is no upper savings limit for Pension Credit. Having money in the bank, owning your home or having a private pension does not disqualify you. Savings above £10,000 are treated as a small assumed weekly income rather than as a barrier to claiming, so the savings reduce the calculation rather than ending it.
GOV.UK states plainly that you can get Pension Credit even if you have other income, savings or own your own home (GOV.UK, Pension Credit, checked 1 November 2026). Our savings limit page works through what the savings rule means at each level.
| Savings and investments | Counted as weekly income |
|---|---|
| £10,000 or less | Nothing |
| £11,000 | £2 a week |
| £12,000 | £4 a week (our calculation) |
| £20,000 | £20 a week (our calculation) |
Source: GOV.UK, Pension Credit eligibility, checked 30 October 2026. GOV.UK’s rule is that every £500 over £10,000 counts as £1 of income a week, and its own example is £11,000 counting as £2. The £12,000 and £20,000 rows are our calculation from GOV.UK’s rule.
The arithmetic that turns savings into a weekly figure is on our how much page, along with the rule that catches people deferring a pension they have not yet claimed.
What counts as income, and what does not
The calculation turns on income, and several benefits people assume will count against them do not. Attendance Allowance, Personal Independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance are all ignored entirely, which is why claiming one can leave you better off in two places at once.
Several others are ignored too, and our how much page carries GOV.UK’s list in full alongside what does count — your State Pension, other pensions, earnings, and most other social security benefits (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
A private pension counts whether or not you draw it, and a lump sum taken out becomes savings; our tax on pensions page covers both. The list of ignored benefits matters more than it looks. If you have been putting off an Attendance Allowance claim, it cannot reduce your Pension Credit, and it may increase it through the addition below.
The extra amounts that get left off the form
The headline figures are not the whole award. Extra amounts are added for severe disability and for caring, and they are substantial enough to change whether a claim is worth making at all. They are also the part of the form that is easiest to leave blank.
The severe disability addition is £86.05 a week, and the carer’s addition is £48.15 a week (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: what you'll get, checked 1 November 2026). Someone who works out the basic figures, concludes they are a few pounds over the line and stops there can be walking away from it.
Our how much page lists all four additions, what each is worth, and exactly which awards qualify you for them.
The severe disability addition works the other way round too. If someone claims Carer’s Allowance for looking after you, GOV.UK says that addition will usually stop, and the two amounts are close enough that the household can end up no better off. Worth checking before either of you sends a form.
What Pension Credit unlocks
Any amount of Pension Credit is a reason to claim, even when the award is small. It works as a gateway, and receiving any amount opens a list of other help that could be worth considerably more than the payment. A few pence a week could be worth hundreds.
Receiving Pension Credit gives you access to (GOV.UK, Pension Credit, checked 1 November 2026):
- Housing Benefit, if you rent your home
- Support for Mortgage Interest, if you own it
- a Council Tax Reduction
- a free TV licence if you are aged 75 or over
- help with NHS dental treatment, glasses, and transport to hospital appointments, if you get the Guarantee Credit part of Pension Credit
- Cold Weather Payments, or Winter Heating Payment in Scotland
- the Warm Home Discount
- a discount on Royal Mail’s redirection service
The free TV licence alone is worth more each year than a small Pension Credit award, and Council Tax Reduction can be worth more again. The weekly figure is the wrong number to judge a claim by, because the help that follows from getting any award could be worth more.
Our what unlocks what tool takes this further: tick what you already receive and it shows everything we have verified as following from it, with the source beside each one.
Backdating, and why waiting costs money
A claim can be backdated by three months, and no further. Every week you delay past that window is a week you cannot recover, which makes Pension Credit unusual among benefits in having a direct financial cost attached to thinking about it for too long.
If you were eligible during those three months, that period arrives in your first payment (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: how to claim, checked 1 November 2026). Anything earlier is gone.
You can also start an application up to four months before reaching State Pension age, which is worth doing, because it means payment can begin when you qualify rather than after a processing gap.
Who cannot get Pension Credit?
Pension Credit is not open to you in two situations. A couple where only one partner has reached State Pension age is not eligible, unless one of you gets Housing Benefit for people over State Pension age. Nor can you apply while you are already outside Great Britain, or get it if you are moving away from Great Britain permanently.
A partner here means a husband, wife or civil partner you live with, or someone you live with as a couple without being married or in a civil partnership. GOV.UK’s eligibility page sets out both the couple rule and the Great Britain rule (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
If that is your position, the thing to check is what the younger partner can claim instead, rather than waiting. A free adviser will look at both sets of circumstances at once, which is not something this page can do.
How to claim
There are three routes and none of them requires a computer: online, by telephone on 0800 99 1234, or by post. Our contact page covers which number handles what, who else can ring on your behalf, and what to have in front of you before the call.
The claim line is open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and a friend or family member can call for you if you cannot use the phone. The online service is open to you if you have already applied for your State Pension (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: how to claim, checked 1 November 2026).
One detail is worth preparing whichever route you take, because it surprises people. You will be asked about your income and savings on the date you want the claim backdated to, not only today’s figures (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: how to claim, checked 1 November 2026). Knowing what was in the account three months ago saves the call being paused while you find out.
Pension Credit covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland runs its own version through nidirect, on broadly similar rules.
If you are not sure whether you would qualify, our see what you can claim tool takes three questions and answers before it asks anything of you. There is no name or email to give, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Three situations have their own pages: couples and life changes, reviews, suspensions and overpayments, and help with mortgage interest, service charges and ground rent.