How Tax Credits affect other Benefits

Getting tax credits won't normally affect any other benefits you get. But there are some benefits that take tax credits into account when the amount you'll get is being worked out. It's worth checking how tax credits might affect other benefits before you make your claim.

Which other benefits may be affected

Some benefits you might get are ‘means tested’. This means that the money you get depends on:

how much you've got coming in – your income
how much you've got in your savings

The office that pays you your benefit may take into account any tax credits that you (and your partner if you have one) get as part of your income when they work out your benefit. This could be Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit or both. The benefits that may count tax credits as part of your income are:

Council Tax Benefit
Housing Benefit
Income Support
income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Pension Credit

The more money you've got coming in, the lower these benefit payments will be. Sometimes they may go down to nothing – ‘nil’.

If you're not getting tax credits at the moment

If you're getting any of the following benefits, your payments may go down to nil if you decide to claim – and get – Working Tax Credit and/or Child Tax Credit:

Income Support
income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Pension Credit
Housing Benefit
Council Tax Benefit

Even if your benefit payments go down to nil you can often get at least as much money overall as you were getting before. And as long as you qualify for tax credits you may still be able to get other help, such as free school meals or free prescriptions, even if your other benefit payments go down to nil.

Before you make your claim to tax credits, it is a good idea to contact the office that pays you the other benefits and ask them to check how tax credits could affect your benefit payments.

If you're already getting tax credits

If you decide to claim any of the following benefits, you will need to let the benefit office know that you're getting tax credits when you make your claim:

Council Tax Benefit
Housing Benefit
Income Support
income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Pension Credit

The benefit office need to know how much tax credits you're getting so they can work out what your benefit payment should be.

Any new benefits you claim won't usually include money for your children. This may mean that you get more Child Tax Credit. The exceptions are Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit which always include an allowance for children.

The benefit office will help you tell the Tax Credit Office that you have claimed benefit.

Changes to your tax credits that may affect other benefits

If you're getting any of the benefits listed above and your tax credits go up, down or stop, you'll need to tell the benefit office that pays you. Tell them as quickly as possible.

The benefit office can then make sure they're paying you the right amount of benefit as quickly as possible – otherwise they may pay you too much, meaning you'll have to pay it back. Or if they don't pay you enough you may have to wait before you get what's due to you.

Tax credits effect on non-UK benefits

If you or your partner gets benefits from another country, your benefit payments may be affected if you claim tax credits in the UK. You'll also need to tell the Tax Credit Office if the amount of your non-UK benefit changes.

Contact details for other benefits

There are different benefit offices to contact, depending on where you live and which benefits you get.

If you're in England, Wales or Scotland

The offices to contact are:

for Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance – your local Jobcentre Plus office
for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit – your local council
for Pension Credit – the Pension Service

If you're in Northern Ireland