Universal Credit Calculator 2026/27
Work out what Universal Credit you could get: standard allowance, housing, children, caring and work, with the taper applied.
Disclaimer: This tool does not constitute financial advice. Results are estimates based on the information you enter and the published rates at the time of writing, and may be affected by changes in policy, rates or your own circumstances. Use them at your own risk and take professional advice before acting on them.
Universal Credit is one monthly payment that replaced six separate benefits. It is built from a standard allowance set by your age and whether you claim alone or as a couple, plus an element for each extra cost you carry: rent, children, registered childcare, a health condition that limits work, and caring for someone. Add those together and you have your maximum Universal Credit.
Current 2026/27 figures: the standard allowance is £424.90 a month for a single person aged 25 or over and £666.97 for a couple where either is 25 or over. Every child brings £303.94 since the two-child limit ended on 6 April 2026. The health element is paid at £429.80 or £217.26 depending on when the condition was reported. Earnings above your work allowance reduce the award by 55p in the pound.
This calculator applies all of it: the 174 Local Housing Allowance areas published for 2026/27, the 14% and 25% under-occupancy reductions, the capital rules, the benefit cap and the 15% deductions cap. Every figure is read from the rates DWP published, and the source for each one is listed at the foot of this page.
At a glance
What are the four figures that decide your award?
The four figures that decide most awards, and what each one actually does.
- Standard allowance a month
- £424.90
- Taken per pound earned
- 55p
- Work allowance a month
- £427.00
- Capital cuts you off
- £16,000.00
Single, 25 or over. Every award starts here before elements are added.
Above your work allowance. You keep 45p, so working always leaves you ahead.
Ignored entirely before the taper starts. £710.00 if your award has no housing element.
Nothing is counted below £6,000.00. In between, each £250.00 counts as £4.35 a month of income.
The sum
How much Universal Credit will I get?
The calculator above does this for you. Here is the same sum written out, in the order DWP applies it.
Start with your standard allowance
Set by two things only: whether you claim alone or as a couple, and whether either of you is 25 or over. It is £338.58 a month single and under 25, £424.90 single and 25 or over, £528.34 for a couple both under 25, and £666.97 where either is 25 or over. Couples get one allowance between them, not one each.
Add an element for every extra cost
£303.94 for each child, or £351.88 for an eldest child born before 6 April 2017. Rent, up to the Local Housing Allowance cap for your area if you rent privately. 85% of registered childcare, up to £1,836.16 a month. £429.80 or £217.26 if a Work Capability Assessment finds you have limited capability for work. £209.34 if you care for someone at least 35 hours a week.
That total is your maximum Universal Credit
Nothing has been taken off yet. This is the figure before earnings, before capital, before the benefit cap and before any deductions for debt. It is also the number most people mean when they say what they are entitled to.
Take off earnings above your work allowance
If you have children or the health element, the first £427.00 a month is ignored where your award includes housing, or £710.00 where it does not. Everything above that cuts the award by 55p in the pound. Everyone else has no allowance and is tapered from the first pound. The taper applies to take-home pay, after tax and National Insurance, not to gross.
Take off assumed income from capital
Savings below £6,000.00 are ignored completely. Between £6,000.00 and £16,000.00, every £250.00 or part of it counts as £4.35 a month of income you do not actually receive. At £16,000.00 or above there is no entitlement at all, whatever your circumstances.
The benefit cap and deductions come last
Neither changes what you are entitled to, both change what is paid. The cap limits total benefits to £1,835.00 a month for a family outside London unless an exemption applies. Deductions for advances, rent arrears and overpayments take up to 15% of your standard allowance. That is why an award statement and a bank statement can show two different numbers.
Who can claim
Can you claim Universal Credit?
The tests that decide whether there is an award at all, before any element is added.
You can usually claim if
- You are 18 or over and under State Pension age, with some exceptions at 16 and 17.
- You live in the UK and meet the residence and presence conditions.
- You and your partner have less than £16,000.00 in savings and capital between you.
- You are in work, out of work, or unable to work. Universal Credit covers all three.
You cannot claim if
- Your capital is £16,000.00 or more, whatever your income.
- You are in full-time education, unless you have children, a disability or a partner who can claim.
- You are subject to immigration control with no recourse to public funds.
- You and your partner are both over State Pension age. Pension Credit applies instead.
The elements
What is a Universal Credit award made up of?
One card per element, each linking to the tool or guide that works it out.
Coverage
What does this calculator take into account?
Every element, threshold and deduction that changes the answer is built into the tool above.
The two-child limit is gone
Since 6 April 2026 every child brings a child element, however many you have. Calculators still applying the old cap understate a larger family's award badly.
Both health element rates
The health element split in April 2026 into £429.80 and £217.26. Which one you get depends on when you reported the condition, and the tool asks.
Real Local Housing Allowance rates
The published DWP rates for 174 broad rental market areas across England and Wales, with your bedroom entitlement worked out from who lives with you.
Tax and National Insurance too
Universal Credit tapers take-home pay, not gross. The better-off-in-work calculator runs payroll first, then the 55% taper, so the answer is the one that reaches your account.
Eleven separate calculators
Bedroom entitlement, payment dates, deductions and the benefit cap each get their own tool, because each answers a question the main calculator cannot.
Nothing leaves your browser
Every calculation runs on your device. No account, no email, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How it works
How is Universal Credit worked out?
Your maximum Universal Credit is the standard allowance for your household plus every element you qualify for: housing, children, childcare, limited capability for work, carer. That total is the starting point, not the answer.
Earnings then reduce it. If you have children or limited capability for work, the first £427.00 a month is ignored when your award includes housing, or £710.00 when it does not. Everything above that cuts the award by 55p in the pound, so you keep 45p of each pound you earn.
The chart shows one household (a single parent with a child and £500 of social rent) at five different wages. The award falls as pay rises, but total income never does.
Rates
What are the Universal Credit rates for 2026/27?
The monthly figures the calculator uses. Change one here and every page, example and chart on the site follows.
Comparison
Local Housing Allowance rates
If you rent privately, your housing element is capped at the Local Housing Allowance rate for your area and the bedrooms your household is entitled to, not at what you actually pay. Rent above the rate comes out of the rest of your award.
| Area | Shared accommodation | 1 bedroom | 2 bedrooms | 3 bedrooms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inner East London | £699.50 | £1,439.97 | £1,750.00 | £2,160.02 |
| Bristol | £511.33 | £900.00 | £1,095.00 | £1,300.00 |
| Birmingham | £341.58 | £695.00 | £750.00 | £825.00 |
| Central Greater Manchester | £411.58 | £775.00 | £875.00 | £950.00 |
| Leeds | £347.62 | £675.00 | £775.00 | £850.00 |
| Cardiff | £366.10 | £650.00 | £825.00 | £925.00 |
Examples
What does a real award look like?
Three real households, run through the same engine as the calculator above, with every element shown.
Straight answers
Which page answers your exact question?
The calculator above handles the whole award. These pages each take one question and answer it in full.
Money coming in
Rent and the home
Health and capability
Claiming
How do you claim Universal Credit?
What the process actually involves, and the two points where people lose money by waiting.
Get your figures together
Your rent and what it includes, your last few payslips, childcare invoices, and the balance of every account you and your partner hold. Estimating the rent is the single most common reason an estimate comes out wrong.
Make the claim online
Claims start at GOV.UK and need an email address, bank details and ID. Couples make one joint claim, both partners signing in separately. Your first assessment period starts the day you claim, which fixes every payment date afterwards.
Report changes as they happen
A change of rent, hours, childcare or household is reported through your journal, and it takes effect from the assessment period it falls in, not from the day you tell them. Late reporting is what turns an underpayment into an overpayment.
Get it right
What do people get wrong?
The mistakes that change the answer, and the ones that cost money after the claim is made.
Assuming the rent is covered in full
Local Housing Allowance has been frozen since 2024 while rents rose, so a private rent above the cap (or a social rent with a spare bedroom) leaves a shortfall you pay out of the rest of the award.
Using an old calculator that still caps children at two
Every child brings £303.94 a month since 6 April 2026. A tool built before then understates a three-child family by that much or more.
Missing a disabled child addition
Additions of £164.79 or £514.71 a month are paid for every disabled child, on top of the child element, and have to be reported with evidence.
Forgetting childcare is paid in arrears
85% of registered childcare comes back, but only after you have paid the provider and reported the cost inside the right assessment period.
Being surprised by a five-week month
Earnings are matched to assessment periods from payroll data. If you are paid weekly or four-weekly, some periods contain an extra pay date and the award drops for that month alone.
Not asking for deductions to be reduced
Debt repayments are normally capped at 15% of your standard allowance, and you can ask for less. Most people never do.
Recent changes
What changed in April 2026?
Universal Credit changed shape in April 2026. Every figure on this site reflects the current rules.
Calculator tools
Which calculators do people use most?
Quick, accurate tools for the questions people ask most.
By situation
Which calculator fits your situation?
Which elements you get, and which deductions apply, depend on which of these you are.
Expert guides
Where can you read the rules in full?
The background reading that turns a figure into a decision.
Compare
How do two situations compare side by side?
See what changes in an award when one thing about the household does.
Breakdown
Where does each pound of an award come from?
An award is not one payment with one reason behind it. It is a stack of elements, each with its own qualifying rule, and knowing which one is missing is how a wrong award gets corrected.
The chart splits the maximum Universal Credit for a single parent with one child and £500 a month of social rent. Housing is usually the largest slice, which is why a change of address or a spare bedroom moves the total more than anything else.
Tools and guides
What else is on this site?
The full set of calculators, guides and rate tables in one place.
The 2026 changes
Plain English
What do the Universal Credit terms mean?
Ten terms that appear on every award statement, defined once.
Standard allowance
The base amount of an award, set only by your age and whether you claim alone or as a couple. Elements are added to it.
Element
An addition for a particular cost or circumstance: housing, a child, childcare, limited capability for work, or caring for someone.
Maximum Universal Credit
Standard allowance plus every element you qualify for, before earnings, capital, the benefit cap or deductions are taken off.
Work allowance
The amount you can earn each month before the taper starts. Only households with children or the health element get one.
Taper
The rate at which earnings reduce the award above the work allowance, currently 55p in the pound of take-home pay.
Assessment period
The calendar month your award is worked out over. It starts the day you claim and fixes every payment date afterwards.
LCWRA
Limited capability for work and work-related activity, the outcome of a Work Capability Assessment that brings the health element.
Local Housing Allowance
The cap on the housing element for private renters, set per area and per bedroom entitlement. DWP publishes 174 areas for England and Wales.
Non-dependant
Another adult living with you who is not your partner. Each one reduces your housing element by £96.55 a month.
Transitional protection
A top-up that keeps an award level when you move from a legacy benefit after a migration notice. It is never added to a voluntary claim.
Where to start
Claiming, or advising someone who is?
Two different jobs, two different routes through the same figures.
If you are claiming
Questions
Frequently asked questions
The questions people actually search for, answered with the same figures the calculator uses.
Not sure which elements apply to you?
Answer a few questions and see your estimate in under a minute, or read the guide that explains the rules behind it.
Free, no sign-up, nothing stored. An estimate, not a DWP decision.
Trust
How are these figures kept up to date?
Built from the published rates, checked against the source, and dated so you can tell whether it is current.
- Rate year
- 2026/27
- Figures last checked
- 7 September 2026
- LHA areas carried
- 174
- Reviewed by
- Matilda Rose Edwards
In force from 6 April 2026
Against the DWP published rates
England and Wales, from the DWP CSV
Researcher and editor
References
Sources
Figures on this page are taken from the following primary sources and were last checked on 7 September 2026.
- GOV.UK: Universal Credit, what you'll get, standard allowance, elements and the 2026/27 rates
- GOV.UK: LHA rates 2026 to 2027, the published monthly rates for every broad rental market area
- GOV.UK: Families with more than 2 children, confirmation that the two-child limit ended on 6 April 2026
- GOV.UK: If you have a health condition or disability, the two health element rates and who keeps the higher one
- GOV.UK: Benefit cap, cap levels, exemptions and the grace period
- GOV.UK: Money taken off your payment, the 15% deduction cap and the priority order