What will affect how much benefit I receive?

Your income, your savings and your personal circumstances.

You must provide evidence of your income, your partner’s income and any money earned by other members of your household. This includes all the money you have coming in, from all sources. If you are in doubt about any income you should declare it.

You also have to provide evidence of your savings. As a general rule, if you have capital valued at more than £16,000, then you will not be entitled to benefit. However, if there is a cost involved in disposing of a capital asset, 10 per cent of the value is disregarded. So, for example, someone with stocks and shares worth £17,000 would have £1,700 disregarded and might qualify.

You will need to tell us about your health, age and the details of all the people living in your household. This includes your partner, dependent children, grown up children, lodgers, flat sharers, subtenants and friends.

If your Council Tax bill includes garden charges we will take these into account when calculating your entitlement.