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These capital rules apply if you claim income support, income-related employment and support allowance, income-based jobseeker's allowance, housing benefit or council tax benefit.
We also have information on capital rules for other benefits .
You cannot get benefit if your capital or savings (or you and your partner's capital or savings) is above an upper savings limit of £16,000.
There is no upper savings limit if you are getting pension credit guarantee credit and claiming housing benefit or council tax benefit.
Your benefit will be affected if your capital or savings (or you and your partner's capital or savings) is above a lower savings limit of £6,000. If you are on income support and permanently in a care home this lower limit is £10,000. Since 2 November 2009, the lower capital disregard limit if you qualify for pension credit has been raised from £6000 to £10,000.
If your capital is between the lower and upper limits, a ‘tariff income’ is assumed. One pound a week for every £250 (or part of £250) above the lower limit is included as your income.
For example, if you have capital of between £6,250.01 and £6,500, £2 a week is included as your income. Each time capital gets into the next block of £250 (even by as little as one penny) an additional £1 is included as income.
If you or your partner are aged 60 or over and are getting housing benefit or council tax benefit and not claiming income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance your assumed tariff income is one pound a week for every £500 (or part of £500) above the lower limit.