If you have a mortgage or certain other housing-related loans you may be able to get help towards the interest you pay via means-tested benefits.

Warning!
The figure given by the calculator provides an estimate for the amount that you will be paid to help with housing costs after you have served a ‘waiting period’. This is an initial period after you first claim benefit when you will get no help with your housing costs, or will receive help at a reduced rate. Since January 2010 most people who claim only have to wait 13 weeks before they start to get help with housing costs included in their benefit award. However for some claimants the waiting period can be much longer – up to 39 weeks in some cases. There is no waiting period for housing costs with Pension Credit claims.

The figure provided by the calculator also assumes that if your outstanding loan(s) amount to less than £200,000, the full amount of your loan will be met. However in some circumstances the Department of Work and Pensions may limit the amount of loan they'll meet to less than this. If this applies to you then the amount of help you get will actually be lower than the figure estimated by the calculator. In some cases this may mean that you are not entitled to any payments at all.

The rules determining how much help you will get with your housing costs are complex and we would strongly advise you to get more detailed advice about the help that you are likely to receive. For individual advice please contact our helpline.

If you want to find out more about the rules see more information on housing costs.