Tax credits

This section covers some of the benefits and financial support that you or your child may be entitled to.

Page contents

Universal Credit

Universal Credit is a single benefit that is replacing the following benefits:

  • child tax credits
  • working tax credits
  • housing benefit
  • income support
  • income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA)
  • income-related employment and support allowance (ESA)

For most people needing to make a new claim for any of these benefits, they will now need to submit a claim for Universal Credit instead.

You cannot claim Universal Credit if you either:

  • get the severe disability premium, or are entitled to it
  • received or were entitled to receive the severe disability premium within the last month and you’re still eligible for it

You can read more about universal credit eligibility and how to claim on the Gov.UK website

Tax credits

There are two types of tax credits:

  • Working tax credit (WTC) - a means-tested tax credit for working people on low incomes.
  • Child tax credit (CTC) - a means-tested tax credit for people with children.

You may get extra child tax credit if your child gets disability living allowance (DLA), personal independence payment (PIP) or is certified blind (or was within 28 weeks of your tax credits claim).

It is no longer possible to make a new claim for these tax credits, as most new claimants will be expected to claim universal credit instead. However, if your child is getting a payment known as the severe disability premium as part of another means-tested benefit, they are exempt from claiming universal credit. 

Disability premiums

There are three types of disability premium and you can get more than one premium at a time:

  • disability premium
  • enhanced disability premium
  • severe disability premium

Any money that you get is added to your benefit payments automatically, so you do not usually need to apply for a disability premium.

Further details on disability premiums are explained on the GOV.UK website.

Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit

You can claim Child Benefit if you are responsible for bringing up a child who is:

Parents and carers can still claim or apply for carer’s allowance.