Benefits Cap
Benefits affected by the cap
The benefit cap is a limit on the total amount of benefit you can get. It applies to most people aged between 16-64 years of age.
The amount your household gets from some benefits might go down to make sure you do not get more than the cap limit. The benefit cap affects:
- Bereavement Allowance
- Child Benefit
- Child Tax Credit
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Housing Benefit
- Incapacity Benefit
- Income Support
- Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Maternity Allowance
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Widowed Parent’s Allowance (or Widowed Mother’s Allowance or Widow’s Pension if you started getting it before 9 April 2001)
- Universal Credit
You’re not affected by the cap if you’re over State Pension age. If you’re part of a couple and one of you is under State Pension age, the cap may apply.
You’re not affected by the cap if you or your partner:
- get Working Tax Credit (even if the amount you get is £0)
- get Universal Credit because of a disability or health condition that stops you from working (this is called ‘limited capability for work and work-related activity’)
- get Universal Credit because you care for someone with a disability
- get Universal Credit and you and your partner earn more than £569 a month combined, after tax and National Insurance contributions
You’re also not affected by the cap if you, your partner or any children under 18 living with you gets:
- Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
- Armed Forces Independence Payment
- Attendance Allowance
- Carer’s Allowance
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
- Employment and Support Allowance (if you get the support component)
- Guardian’s Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Benefits (and equivalent payments as part of a War Disablement Pension or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme)
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
- War pensions
- War Widow’s or War Widower’s Pension
The amount you get through the benefit cap depends on whether:
- you live inside or outside Greater London
- you’re single or in a couple
- your children live with you (if you’re single)
If you’re in a couple but you do not live together, you’ll get the amounts for a single person.
Use the benefit cap calculator to find out how much your benefit might be capped.
The benefit cap outside Greater London is:
- £384.62 per week (£20,000 a year) – if you’re in a couple
- £384.62 per week (£20,000 a year) – if you’re a single parent and your children live with you
- £257.69 per week (£13,400 a year) – if you’re a single adult
Help with the benefit cap
Call the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if you need help with the benefit cap.
Universal Credit
Contact DWP through the journal in your Universal Credit online account if you need help with the benefit cap.
For any other benefits
Telephone: 0800 169 0145
Telephone (Welsh): 0800 169 0238
Textphone: 0800 169 0314
NGT text relay (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0800 169 0145
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm
This information is covered by the Open Government Licence
