Are You Missing Out On Unclaimed Benefits?

Is your family income under £66,350? If so, you may be entitled to benefits and tax-credits. Many are simply unaware of their eligibility, including a million plus low income pensioners who sadly fail to collect their pension credit. Yet it's easy to do a five minute benefit check up, using a special web-calculator for the under and over 60s.

 Check what you’re eligible for

A rather useful little site Entitledto.co.uk does the work for you. It has a regularly updated calculator that works everything out in one go, whether you're 22 or 72. It's very simple to use, just input basic details about your personal situation, such as income, council tax bill, and your savings and it reveals what, if any, benefits you're entitled to.

The calculator includes all the main benefits: Working Tax Credit; Council Tax and Housing Benefit; Pension Credit; Child Benefit; Child Trust Fund and Child Tax Credit. It's important to remember, benefits rules do change, so if it's likely you're entitled to benefits then it's worth doing an annual check up.

Entitledto's prime revenue raising comes from selling more advanced and detailed benefits calculators to local authorities. By offering this free calculator it helps build its brand, though actually the founders also seem to genuinely want to help too, and as the technology's already there, it's not too expensive to put it online.

Those people who are fully reliant on benefits and/or struggling for cash should go to a Citizens Advice Bureau or one of the network of Independent Advice Centre for a one-on-one detailed benefits check up. For others, while the entitledto calculator is designed to focus on the main benefits (and tax credits) and only includes those in the calculation, the site itself also points you to information about other benefits, such as Maternity and Paternity Benefits, Carers' Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Income Support and Job Seekers' Allowance.

Yet there are some more specific entitlements that aren't included, so it's worth scanning the following, to see if they apply. 

• Bereavement and Guardian's Payments
  
  Bereavement Allowance is a weekly benefit paying up to £85/week for up to a year after the death of a spouse/civil partner who paid NI contributions. To be eligible you need to be over 45 when they died, but not yet the State Pension age. There's also a separate one-off bereavement payment of £2,000 tax-free available and separate special allowances for widowed parents bringing up a child(ren) or expecting your late husband's baby.
  Guardian's allowance is available for those bringing up a child (or children) because one or both of their parents have died. You must be receiving Child Benefit for the child(ren). 

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  • Healthy Start - Milk, fruit and veg vouchers
    Healthy Start, a government run scheme, gives up to £2.80/week in vouchers for those on Income Support, Income Based Job Seeker's Allowance or Child Tax Credit with children under four or pregnant women. They can be redeemed at most big supermarkets as well as some corner shops, green grocers and market stalls. You can use against milk, fresh fruit and vegetables or infant formula milk.  

  Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

   

  Available to 16-19 year olds, in households with income under £31,000, who decide to stay in further education after their GCSEs, studying at least 12 hours of guided learning per week. Claiming these funds does not affect any other benefits that you receive.