The headline figures are the ones everybody quotes and the ones that mislead most. £238 and £363.25 are not thresholds you have to be under. They are the starting point of a calculation that four separate additions can raise well above them.
What Pension Credit tops your income up to
Pension Credit tops your weekly income up to £238 if you are single, or £363.25 between you if you have a partner. That top-up is called Guarantee Credit, and it pays the difference between what you have coming in and that floor rather than a flat amount.
So the payment is a gap, not a sum. Someone £10 a week short receives about £10 a week; someone £100 short receives about £100 (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: what you'll get, checked 9 September 2026).
That is also why a small award is worth claiming. Our Pension Credit guide sets out the eight other things any amount of it unlocks.
Being above the floor does not rule you out
A higher income does not end the claim. GOV.UK states you might still be eligible if you have a disability, you care for someone, you have savings or you have housing costs. The extra amounts below are the reason, and GOV.UK groups them with the top-up as part of the same Guarantee Credit.
This is the single most expensive misunderstanding about Pension Credit. Someone with £280 a week coming in who receives Attendance Allowance is comparing their income against £238 plus £86.05, not against £238 (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
The extra amounts, in full
Five additions exist, and several are worth more than a whole expected award. Severe disability is £86.05 a week and caring for another adult is £48.15. Each child or young person adds £69.98 a week, or £81.07 for the first child born before 6 April 2017, and a disabled child adds more again.
The severe disability addition is paid if you receive any of: Attendance Allowance, Pension Age Disability Payment, the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment or Adult Disability Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment, or the middle or highest rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance or Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance.
The carer addition has a wider door than its name suggests. It is paid if you get Carer’s Allowance, if you get Carer Support Payment, or if you have claimed Carer’s Allowance but are not being paid it because another benefit already pays you more. Where both of you have claimed it or are getting it, you can both get the addition (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: what you'll get, checked 9 September 2026).
A disabled child or young person brings a further £37.93 a week where they receive DLA for children or Child Disability Payment at the lowest or middle care rate or any mobility rate, or PIP or Adult Disability Payment at the standard daily living rate or any mobility rate — rising to £118.46 a week at the higher rates (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: what you'll get, checked 9 September 2026).
The child amounts run until the 31 August after the child’s 16th birthday, or their 19th if they stay in approved education or training.
Savings Credit, and who it is closed to
Savings Credit is the second part of Pension Credit, and it is closed to most people now. You qualify only if you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 and put something aside for retirement, such as a personal or workplace pension. It is worth up to £17.96 a week if you are single and £20.10 for a couple.
One detail is worth knowing if you were told you do not qualify for Pension Credit at all. GOV.UK states you might still get some Savings Credit even if you do not get the Guarantee Credit part (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: what you'll get, checked 9 September 2026).
How savings are counted
Savings are added to the income side of the calculation rather than measured against a limit, because there is no limit. The first £10,000 is disregarded and the rest is converted into a small weekly figure, which narrows the gap being topped up instead of closing the door on it.
Our savings limit page works the conversion through at each level, and explains why the figure has nothing to do with what your savings actually earn (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
A pension you have not claimed still counts
This one catches people who are deliberately deferring. GOV.UK states that if you are entitled to a personal or workplace pension and have not claimed it, the amount you would expect to get still counts as income. A deferred State Pension is treated the same way.
There is a further consequence worth knowing. GOV.UK states you cannot build up extra amounts for deferring your State Pension if you or your partner are getting Pension Credit (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
So deferring to increase a later pension while claiming Pension Credit now does not work as a strategy. If you are weighing that up, it is worth modelling with someone who can see both sets of figures.
What is not counted as income
Several benefits are ignored entirely, and they are the ones people most fear will count against them. Attendance Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, Adult Disability Payment, Pension Age Disability Payment and Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance are all disregarded.
So are Child Benefit, the Christmas Bonus, Council Tax Reduction, Housing Benefit, and social fund payments such as the Winter Fuel Payment (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
That first list matters twice over. A disability benefit cannot reduce your Pension Credit, and receiving one may add the £86.05 severe disability amount on top. If you have been putting off an Attendance Allowance claim, that is the reason not to.
What counts against you
Your State Pension counts, as do other pensions, earnings from employment and self-employment, and most social security benefits — GOV.UK gives Carer’s Allowance as its example. Those are the figures the calculation actually turns on, alongside any assumed income from savings above £10,000.
Housing costs such as ground rent or service charges can raise the figure your income is compared against, which is one of the four routes GOV.UK names to eligibility on a higher income.
Whether it is worth applying
If your income is anywhere near those figures, the arithmetic is worth doing rather than assuming. A few pounds a week of Pension Credit still opens the free TV licence at 75, Council Tax Reduction, NHS help and the Warm Home Discount.
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