Some local authorities completely disregard income from war pensions when calculating your entitlement to Council Tax Benefit and help with housing costs. If this is the case you should still enter the amount you receive as instructed by the calculator but then indicate that a full disregard operates by saying yes to the question “Does local authority fully disregard income from war pensions?”.

If your council does not completely disregard income from war pensions when calculating Council Tax Benefit and help with housing costs they will disregard at least the first £10 a week that you receive. If you do not know your council’s policy on war pension income you should contact their benefits section for more information.

Please note that some local authorities fully disregard some elements of a war pension but not others. War pensions are made up of several elements. Some of the elements are fully disregarded by local councils, others are not. Unfortunately, the department that administers war pensions, the Veteran’s Agency, does not provide a breakdown on general documentation. As such, unless a form is sent to the Veteran’s Agency at Blackpool an accurate breakdown cannot often not be obtained. If you do not know the components of your war pension you should contact the Veteran’s Agency and your council's benefits section for more information.

Because the calculator simplifies the way war pensions work in some cases your benefit calculation will not be accurate. If your local scheme operates under different rules - or if some parts of your war pension are disregarded and others not - then our estimate will be incorrect. If you have complex circumstances you may be unable to carry out benefit calculations involving war pensions and should seek further advice.

You can find out more about War Pensions on the Veterans’ Agency website. This also provides more details of the help available to war pensioners to cover the cost of medical treatment, hospital travelling expenses and nursing care.