Launching Our Pension Age Benefits Guide

There's a well-documented gap between the support available to people at or beyond State Pension age and the support people actually claim. Some of that is down to complicated eligibility rules, some of it is people simply not knowing a particular benefit exists, and some of it is people assuming — often wrongly — that they wouldn't qualify. We built our Pension Age Benefits Guide to help close that gap.

What it does

The guide is a free, two-minute calculator that asks a handful of straightforward questions about your circumstances and points you toward the areas of support that may be worth exploring — covering things like Attendance Allowance, Pension Credit, Council Tax Reduction, and other help linked to being over State Pension age. It isn't a claim form and it isn't the DWP; it's a starting point that tells you what's worth looking into next, in plain language, without needing to already know which benefit you should be asking about.

Why we built it this way

Most people don't wake up thinking "I wonder if I'm eligible for Attendance Allowance" — they think in terms of their actual situation: managing on a fixed income, finding everyday tasks harder than they used to, or wondering why their council tax bill feels unaffordable. So instead of asking someone to pick a benefit from a list they may never have heard of, the guide asks about circumstances first and works out which types of support are relevant from there. Where you're clearly better off applying yourself directly through GOV.UK, we say so and link you straight there.

• Free to use, with no obligation and no fees mentioned anywhere in the tool itself.
• Built around your circumstances, not a list of benefit names you're expected to already recognise.
• Points to genuine gaps worth checking — extra help with daily living, income top-ups, council tax support, and other pension-age-relevant assistance.
• Always gives you the option to apply yourself for free through the official channel.

Who it's for

This is aimed squarely at people at or approaching State Pension age, and at the family members and carers who often end up doing this kind of research on someone else's behalf. If that's you, it's worth two minutes even if you're fairly confident you already know what you're entitled to — the point of the guide is to catch the support people don't realise applies to them, and that's exactly the kind of thing that's easy to miss when you're not looking for it.