Housing and the cap
Benefit cap calculator: what the limit takes from your household
Enter the benefits that count and your take-home pay; the calculator shows the cap for your household and any amount lost.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
The benefit cap limits the total a working-age household can receive from most benefits. In 2026/27 it is £22,020 a year outside Greater London for a couple or a lone parent whose children live with them, which is £1,835.00 a month or £423.46 a week, and £14,753 for a single adult (£1,229.42 a month). In Greater London the levels are £25,323 and £16,967. The levels are the same as in 2025/26, while the benefits inside them rose by 3.8 %. Universal Credit, Child Benefit, Housing Benefit, New Style JSA and ESA and Maternity Allowance all count. The cap does not apply if household take-home pay reaches £881 a month (up from £846 on 1 April 2026), if anyone gets PIP, DLA, Attendance Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or the Universal Credit LCWRA or carer element, or for 9 months after a job ends for someone who earned at least the threshold in each of the previous 12 months.
Benefit lost to the cap each month
£65.00
Cap for your household: £1,835.00 a month
| Benefits counted | £1,900.00 |
| Cap | £1,835.00 |
| Paid after the cap | £1,835.00 |
Cap amounts unchanged from 2025/26: £22,020 a year for families outside London, £25,323 in London. Child Benefit counts towards it even though it is paid in full.
A capped household, worked through
A lone parent aged 29 with four children, not working, rents a housing association home for £1,100 a month outside London. Universal Credit before the cap is £2,740.66: the standard allowance, four child elements of £303.94 and the rent. Child Benefit adds about £349.92 a month. The total, £3,090.58, is above the family cap of £1,835.00, so Universal Credit is reduced by £1,255.58 a month. Earning £881 a month after tax would remove the cap entirely, and so would a DLA award for one of the children.
What to enter
Under “benefits that count”, add the monthly Universal Credit shown on your statement before any cap line, including the housing element, plus Child Benefit (weekly × 52 ÷ 12) and any New Style JSA or ESA, Maternity Allowance or Housing Benefit. For take-home pay, enter what both partners earned in the assessment period after tax, National Insurance and pension contributions. If you are in a grace period, enter the months left; the calculator then shows no loss until it ends.
| Household | Outside London a month | Greater London a month | Outside London a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Couple, or lone parent with children | £1,835.00 | £2,110.25 | £423.46 |
| Single adult, no children living with them | £1,229.42 | £1,413.92 | £283.71 |
A couple who do not live together are each treated as single. GOV.UK lists the exempt benefits in full, including the support component of ESA, Guardian’s Allowance, war pensions and the Scottish disability payments. Northern Ireland applies the same weekly amounts through Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, as nidirect explains. For a complete Universal Credit figure before the cap, use the Universal Credit calculator.