DWP to Join Up Pension Credit and Housing Benefit Claims — What It Means for You

On 14 July 2026, the Department for Work and Pensions confirmed it is developing a new joined-up service that will let eligible pensioners apply for Housing Benefit and Pension Credit together, rather than as two completely separate claims. A small, invited group of customers will be able to use an online version of the service from autumn 2026, before it’s tested further and gradually rolled out more widely across online, phone, post and in-person channels.

What’s actually changing

• A single application journey — instead of claiming Pension Credit from the DWP and then separately claiming Housing Benefit from your local council, eligible pensioners will eventually be able to apply for both in one go.
• The project has already passed its Government Digital Service alpha assessment with a green rating, which is the stage where a service is tested with real users before wider build-out begins.
• It starts small and invited-only from autumn 2026, then expands based on feedback — this is not a system that goes live for everyone overnight.

What isn’t changing

It’s worth being clear about this, because it’s easy to assume "joined-up" means "merged into one benefit." It doesn’t. The DWP has confirmed that responsibility for each benefit stays exactly where it is: Housing Benefit continues to be administered and paid by your local council, and Pension Credit continues to be managed by the DWP. What’s changing is the front door you walk through to apply — not who assesses or pays you.

Why this is happening at all

Pension Credit and Housing Benefit are already two of the most closely linked benefits in the system. Being awarded Pension Credit’s Guarantee Credit can, on its own, unlock full Housing Benefit for a pensioner who rents. But because the two have historically been claimed through completely different processes — one via the DWP, one via your local council — a huge number of pensioners entitled to both have only ever claimed one, or neither. Government figures on unclaimed Pension Credit alone run into hundreds of millions of pounds a year, and DWP has said explicitly that this joined-up service is designed "to ensure more pensioners receive all the benefits to which they are entitled."

You don’t have to wait for autumn 2026

This is exactly the gap our free Benefits Calculator already closes today, ahead of the DWP’s own system. Rather than checking Pension Credit and Housing Benefit as two separate, unrelated questions, it looks at your income, savings, housing situation and household circumstances in one go, and tells you clearly whether you’re likely eligible for either — or both.

To be upfront about what we do and don’t handle directly: Silverwings currently applies for Attendance Allowance and Pension Credit on our clients’ behalf. For Housing Benefit, the calculator tells you plainly whether you’re likely eligible and points you straight to your local council to claim it — free either way, whether or not you ever become a Silverwings client. If a Pension Credit award we secure for you also unlocks Housing Benefit, we’ll flag that to you as part of the same conversation.