6. Benefits and tax credits
Some benefits are taken into account in the assessment of income support (IS), income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), income-related employment and support allowance (ESA) and housing benefit (HB), and others are ignored or partially ignored.
Benefits and tax credits taken into account in full include:
•child tax credit (CTC) for HB;
•carer’s allowance;
•contributory ESA;
•contribution-based JSA;
•incapacity benefit;
•most industrial injuries benefits;
•retirement pension;
•working tax credit.
Benefits and tax credits completely disregarded include:
•attendance allowance;
•child benefit;
•CTC for IS, JSA and income-related ESA;
•disability living allowance;
•personal independence payment;
•social fund payments.
Benefits and tax credits partly disregarded include:
•widowed parent’s allowance, which has £10 a week disregarded for IS, JSA and ESA, and £15 a week for HB (but you do not get this disregard if you already have £10 disregarded from a student loan or £20 disregarded from hardship fund payments).