Customer/Partner aged 60 and above

Customer/Partner are aged 60 and above

The information contained on this page relates to the calculation of Housing and Council Tax Benefit where the customer/partner are aged 60 and above.

You can access the information on this page by using the following links:

Maximum weekly eligible Rent or Council Tax
Total Allowances and Premiums (Applicable Amount)
Income
Capital/Savings
Final Calculation
What if I think my award is wrong?

Maximum weekly eligible Rent or Council Tax

We start by calculating the maximum award you could be entitled to.

Council House Rent:
We calculate your maximum eligible Housing Benefit based on your weekly rent less any eligible service charges, for example insurance, fuel.
Housing Association Rent:
We calculate your maximum eligible Housing Benefit based on your weekly rent less any ineligible service charges.
Private Landlord Rent:
We need to refer your claim to the Rent Officer who will decide the rent figure that is to be used to calculate benefit. From that we deduct ineligible service charges, for example fuel, meals.
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) - new claims after 07/04/08:
We work out the LHA rate based on the number of bedrooms you need and use this to calculate your award.
Council Tax:
We calculate your maximum eligible Council Tax Benefit less any discount. Benefit cannot be paid on water and sewerage charges.
Non-dependants:
We then check if you have any non-dependants and make the appropriate deductions.

Total allowances and premiums (Applicable Amount)

We then calculate your applicable amount.

To calculate this we refer to allowances and premiums set each year in April by the Department of Work and Pensions. These figures reflect the basic living needs of a claimant and their family.

The information on your claim form is checked to decide which allowances and premiums you are due according to your circumstances. Personal allowances are awarded for the claimant and family members and the amount can vary depending on age and status.

The breakdown of your Allowances is shown on your benefit notification letter.

2012/13 Rates
Allowances	Housing Benefit	Council Tax Benefit
Single Person/Lone Parent aged 60 - 64	142.70	142.70
Single Person/Lone Parent aged 65 and over	161.25	161.25
Couple, the older aged 60 - 64	217.90	217.90
Couple, the older aged 65 and over	241.65	241.65
Child or Young Person up to age 20	64.99	64.99

Premiums

If you satisfy the conditions of entitlement you may also be awarded Premiums.

2012/13 Rates
Criteria	Premium	Amount
If you are responsible for children	Family	17.40
Each child receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or registered blind	Disabled Child	56.63
If child gets DLA Higher rate	Enhanced Disability	22.89
If you get Carer's Allowance for looking after someone or you have underlying entitlement	Carer	32.60
If you and/or your partner get middle or higher rate care component of DLA and live alone and no-one qualifies for Carer's Allowance for looking after you and/or your partner	Severe Disability
	Single/Lone Parent	58.20
	Couple - 1 qualifies	58.20
	Couple - both qualify	116.40

Your Premiums will be shown on your benefit notification letter.

The Allowances and Premiums that you are due are added together and we call this your Applicable Amount.

Income

Unearned Income

This is any Social Security benefit, or pension, or any other income you receive.

The amounts we have taken into account will be individually shown on your benefit notification letter. Examples of unearned income are:

State Retirement Pension
Occupational Pension
Industrial Injuries Benefit
War Pensions
Disability Living Allowance

Unearned Income Disregards

Most state pensions and benefits are counted as income, but the following are not counted:

Disability Living Allowance
War Pensions
Attendance Allowance
Child Maintenance
Childcare costs for 1 child up to £175.00 can be disregarded*
Childcare costs for 2 or more children up to £300.00 can be disregarded*

*Conditions apply

Earned Income

If you or your partner are earning, we will calculate your average weekly earnings figure by using your consecutive 5 weekly, 3 fortnightly or 2 monthly payslips.

Earned Income Disregards

Depending on your circumstances the following amounts can be disregarded:

Earned income disregards
Status	Amount not counted
Single	5.00
Couple	10.00
Lone Parent	25.00
Disabled/Carer	20.00
Additional 16+ or 30+ hours	17.10

We take your Gross Earnings and deduct Tax, National Insurance, half of any superannuation and any earned income disregard to calculate your "Net Earned Income".

Capital/Savings

We calculate the value of your capital and calculate any tariff income. For more information, please see our page entitled Capital/Savings.

If you have capital/savings between £10,000 and £16,000, under the regulations we have to assume that you get £1 of income per week from every £500 of savings over £10,000. This is your tariff income.

Final Calculation

After we

establish your maximum eligible weekly rent/maximum rent or Council Tax
make any non-dependent deductions
establish your applicable amount
calculate your net income figure
calculate your tariff income from capital

We then check

if your total net income is lower than your Applicable Amount:
- You will receive the maximum eligible amount of benefit less any non- dependant deductions;
if your total net income is higher than your Applicable Amount:
- The Applicable Amount is deducted from your total net income and the difference between the two is called 'excess income.
- We apply a taper of 20% for Council Tax Benefit and 65% for Housing Benefit to the excess income.
- This amount is then deducted from your maximum eligible amount of benefit less any non-dependent deductions. The difference is the amount of benefit you will be awarded each week.