Welfare rights advice

Working out what you're entitled to and what your rights are can be complicated. You can get an estimate of your potential benefits entitlement using an online benefit checker based on the information you supply. However if your situation is not straight forward, your circumstances are changing or if you are under 18 or a student you will need more individual advice.

If you have read the information available on these pages and need personalised expert support and advice contact our team.

The Contact us for advice page gives details of phone numbers, special language services and how to access the service via your GP. Alternatively you can fill in the form on the Request advice page and the team will contact you.

More information about benefits and tax credits

There is a lot of information on the internet about benefits, sometimes too much information. Here we make a few suggestions.

There is information and advice on these pages about government changes to incapacity benefits and changes to housing benefit, and what to do if you are affected. We also have information on the benefits you can claim if you are made redundant.

Directgov provides general information on money, taxes and benefits with access to online claim forms.

Citizens Advice online guide has a frequently asked questions and a wide range of benefit fact sheets.

You can see the full range of welfare benefits and tax credit rates for April 2011 to 2012 in the downloadable documents below.

Older people

Five billion pounds each year go unclaimed by older people. Age UK offers information and advice about benefits for older people. Pension age is changing. Check when you will be eligible to claim your state retirement pension or pension credit with a pension age calculator.

Ill and disabled people

If you need information about Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) you can download our guide to the Work Capability Assessment (medical).

Did you know that you can work part-time on your Incapacity Benefit or ESA without affecting any of your benefits being affected? This is called permitted work.

Disability alliance has a wide range of fact sheets which provide basic information about benefits, tax credits, social care and other disability related issues. These include information about Disability Living Allowance.