Pension age
Pension Credit calculator: the weekly top-up you could claim
Enter weekly pension income and savings; add disability, caring or children if they apply.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Pension Credit has two parts. Guarantee Credit raises weekly income to £238.00 for a single person or £363.25 for a couple in 2026/27, with £86.05 more for a severe disability, £48.15 for a carer and £69.98 for each child you are responsible for. Savings Credit, worth up to £17.96 a week single or £20.10 for a couple, is only open to people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016. Savings up to £10,000 are ignored; above that each £500 or part of it counts as £1 of weekly income, and there is no upper limit. Attendance Allowance, PIP, Child Benefit and Housing Benefit do not count as income. The calculator applies these steps in order and shows which line produced your result.
Pension Credit a week (estimate)
£38.00
About £1,976 a year
| Standard minimum guarantee | £238.00 |
| Your income counted (with savings) | −£200.00 |
| Guarantee Credit | £38.00 |
| Savings Credit | £0.00 |
Even a few pence of Guarantee Credit opens Housing Benefit at the maximum, Council Tax Reduction, Cold Weather Payments and help with NHS costs.
A worked example
A widow with a State Pension of £205 a week and £14,200 in savings has £9 of assumed income from her savings, so her income for Pension Credit is £214.00. Her guaranteed amount is £238.00, which leaves Guarantee Credit of £24.00 a week, about £1,248 a year. If she received Attendance Allowance and nobody was paid Carer’s Allowance for looking after her, the severe disability amount of £86.05 would lift that to £110.05.
What to enter
Use weekly figures before tax: State Pension, workplace and personal pensions, any earnings (only part is counted in reality, so the estimate errs on the low side), Carer’s Allowance and other taxable benefits. Leave out PIP, Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Child Benefit and Winter Fuel Payment. A couple enters joint income and joint savings. The calculator does not apply the earnings disregards or the rules for mixed-age couples, who usually claim Universal Credit instead; the Pension Credit guide covers those cases.
After the result
Claim online, by phone or by post through the Pension Service; GOV.UK’s eligibility page lists the evidence. Savings Credit is explained, with its two-step formula, in Savings Credit worked through. Tenants should also run the Housing Benefit calculator, since Guarantee Credit gives the full eligible rent.