Pension-age Housing Benefit to end from 2026

Pension-age Housing Benefit will end, with all new claims for housing costs from 2026 administered with Pension Credit, the Budget confirmed on 30 October 2024¹. The measure was described as a re-announcement affecting benefits administration¹.

The stated aim is to help with benefit take-up, so that pensioners who claim one benefit do not miss out on the other¹. The change centralises support for housing costs in the Department for Work and Pensions, following the process set in motion by Universal Credit¹. It also supports other government action encouraging Housing Benefit claimants to claim Pension Credit before cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment affect them¹.

The same Budget set out other benefit figures. Benefits rates will increase by 1.7 per cent, which the analysis notes is in line with price inflation but under half the 4.1 per cent increase for pensioners¹. A working-age person on benefits will see their income rise by around £1.50 a week in April, with the standard personal allowance rising to £92 a week¹. The full-rate basic pension will increase by £9 a week in April to £230 a week¹.

The Budget also confirmed the accelerated migration of all Employment and Support Allowance claimants to Universal Credit by 2026, instead of by 2028¹. The earnings limit where Carer's Allowance eligibility ends will be set at the amount earned by someone working 16 hours a week on the National Living Wage¹. The Household Support Fund's life will be extended, and the amount deducted from benefits to pay outstanding debts will be limited¹.

Plans to move the High Income Child Benefit Charge to a household basis were shelved. The Chancellor baulked at the estimated cost of £1.4 billion to double the income threshold, and the idea has been shelved¹. The current system starts to remove Child Benefit from households where one member earns £60,000 a year¹.

Why it matters for households

From 2026, pensioners who need help with rent and have not claimed before will claim it through Pension Credit rather than through Housing Benefit. Existing claimants are not covered by the change as reported: the confirmation concerns new claims for housing costs from 2026¹. The stated intention is that claiming one benefit does not mean missing out on the other¹.

The analysis warns that local authority benefit departments will be left in a difficult position, providing help with housing only to people in temporary and supported accommodation while maintaining large IT systems¹. It adds that there may be less of a local focus on benefits and take-up, which may in turn mean less support for encouraging take-up of Council Tax Reduction¹.

For working-age claimants, the 1.7 per cent uprating means around £1.50 a week more in April, against £9 a week more for the full-rate basic pension¹. The analysis describes a wide and growing gap between pension-age and working-age benefit levels¹. Carers on the minimum wage gain certainty that they can combine working with caring, under the new earnings limit rule¹.

What happens next

Statistics due on 12 November should show how the DWP is progressing with moving legacy benefit claimants to Universal Credit¹. The analysis notes that a third of Tax Credit claimants failed to move to UC, which it says should act as a warning, and that Employment and Support Allowance claimants include some of the most vulnerable people in the country¹.