The Pension Credit gap estimator
Pension Credit pays the difference between your income and a floor. This shows you both figures and the gap between them — including the additions that raise the floor above £238.
State Pension, other pensions, earnings. Leave out Attendance Allowance, PIP and DLA — they are not counted.
The first £10,000 is ignored. There is no upper limit.
I am responsible for a child or young person
Put a weekly income in above and the comparison appears here. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Why it shows a gap and not an award
A real Pension Credit award turns on more than this page can see: Savings Credit for anyone who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, housing costs that depend on what you actually pay, and the precise treatment of several kinds of income. A tool that produced a confident award figure from four questions would be guessing.
So the gap estimator does the part that can be done honestly and stops. The gap tells you whether a claim is worth making, which is the decision you are actually facing. The Pension Service settles the amount.
The floor is not £238
That is the figure everyone quotes, and the reason people rule themselves out. It is the starting point for a single person with no additions: severe disability adds £86.05 a week and caring adds £48.15. Our how much page sets out all four additions and which awards qualify you for them.
What happens to what you type
Nothing leaves your browser. There is no account, no email box, and nothing is saved between visits. You are being asked about your income and your savings, which is not information anybody should hand to a website in exchange for an answer, so this one does not ask for it.
Common questions
Does this tell me how much Pension Credit I would get?
No, and that is deliberate rather than unfinished. It compares your counted income against the floor your circumstances produce and shows the gap between them. Savings Credit, housing costs and the exact treatment of some income sit outside it, so any award figure here would be a guess.
Why does the floor change when I tick a box?
Because the extra amounts are part of the same Guarantee Credit calculation. Severe disability adds £86.05 a week and caring adds £48.15, so someone above £238 can still have a gap. That is the single most expensive misunderstanding about Pension Credit.
How are savings treated?
The first £10,000 is ignored entirely. Above that, every full £500 counts as £1 a week of assumed income, so £20,000 counts as £20 a week. There is no upper limit, which means savings narrow the gap rather than ending a claim outright.
Is anything I type here sent to you?
No. Every figure stays in your browser, nothing is transmitted, stored or logged, and there is no account to make. Closing the tab discards it, and nothing is saved between visits, so write down anything you want to keep before you leave.
Figures checked against GOV.UK on 9 September 2026 and re-checked at each April uprating. If the gap looks close, our contact page has the two numbers and which one to ring.