Savings and Capital Assets

This is all money, investments, property or savings that you or your partner may have. It includes all bank, building society and post office accounts, premium bonds, stocks and shares, cash and even money owed to you or held by someone else on your behalf.

You will not be entitled to Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit if your savings exceed £16,000.

There are some exceptions to this with certain pensioners who are in receipt of Guranteed Credit from the Pension Service.

Tariff Income

Non-pensioners

If you have saving over £6,000 we assume an income from your savings. This is called "tariff income". We ignore the first £6,000. After this we assume an income of £1.00 for every £250 over the £6,000.
For example:

If you have £7,255 in savings we would deduct £6 weekly as income

Pensioners

You will not be entitled to Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit if your savings exceed £16,000. There are some exceptions to this if you are in receipt of Guranteed Credit from the Pension Service.

If you or your partner are aged 60 or over, we ignore the first £6,000 of your savings. After this we assume an income of £1 for every £500.

For example:

If you have £4,000 in savings this will not affect your Housing/ Council Tax Benefit
If you have £7,255 in savings we would deduct £2.00 weekly as income
If you are entitled to Guranteed Credit the tariff income rules will not apply.

Capital that we ignore

We do not take into account certain types of capital assets such as:

Your home
Your previous home if it is up for sale
Any property you own where an elderly or disabled relative lives
Any property where work is being done to make it fit to live in
A future interest in property. When you will have an interest in a property after a certain event occurs, for example after a divorce settlement
If you are taking legal action to occupy your home
Money from the sale of your property, for a period of six months if it is to be used to buy another home
Some arrears of benefits
Special Government payments for compensation

Important Notice: This list does not cover everything. Please make sure that you tell us about all of your savings and capital assets.

Where can I get help?

If you need to find out whether you are eligible for any of these benefits or if you need help completing benefit forms, please get in touch with our Independent Benefit Advisor, Karen Linford.

Phone Karen on 0151 356 6607 or email karen.linford@epnbc.gov.uk

Home visits can be arranged if required.

Advice is also available from Ellesmere Port and Neston's Citizens Advice Bureau.

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