- Last updated: August 2026. Every figure on this page is a 2026/27 tax-year rate that applies from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.
- Universal Credit standard allowance: £424.90 a month for a single person aged 25 or over, and £666.97 a month for a couple where at least one partner is 25 or over.1
- PIP daily living: £76.70 a week at the standard rate and £114.60 a week at the enhanced rate. PIP mobility: £30.30 a week standard and £80.00 a week enhanced.2
- Attendance Allowance: £76.70 a week at the lower rate and £114.60 a week at the higher rate.7 Carer's Allowance: £86.45 a week.6
- Child Benefit: £27.05 a week for the eldest or only child and £17.90 a week for each additional child.3 The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week.4
- Benefit cap: £1,835 a month (£2,110 in Greater London) for couples and single parents, with lower caps for single adults without children.5
Universal Credit standard allowances (monthly)
Universal Credit is paid monthly and every award starts from a standard allowance set by your age and household type. The four 2026/27 rates are: £338.58 a month for a single person aged 18 to 24, £424.90 a month for a single person aged 25 or over, £528.34 a month for a couple where both are under 25, and £666.97 a month for a couple where at least one partner is 25 or over.
These are floor amounts before any additions or deductions. Most working-age couples fall on the £666.97 rate because it applies as soon as one partner reaches 25. The standard allowance on its own is rarely the final figure, because elements are added on top and earnings, savings and the benefit cap can reduce the result.
The Universal Credit elements added on top
The child element is £303.94 a month for each dependent child. From 6 April 2026 the two-child limit was removed, so every eligible child now generates a child element regardless of when they were born.
A work allowance applies to households with a child or a limited capability for work element: £710 a month where there is no housing costs element, or £427 a month where there is one. Earnings above the work allowance reduce the award by 55p for every £1 (the 55% taper).
A carer element of £209.34 a month is added if you care for a severely disabled person. The childcare element can reimburse up to 85% of registered childcare costs, capped at £1,071.09 a month for one child and £1,836.16 a month for two or more children.
Savings below £6,000 are ignored. Between £6,000 and £16,000, every complete £250 above £6,000 adds £4.35 a month of assumed 'tariff' income. At £16,000 or more you generally cannot get Universal Credit.
Worked example: what the two-child-limit change is worth
The single biggest rate change for 2026/27 is not a headline uprating, it is the removal of the two-child limit from 6 April 2026. Take a family with three children on Universal Credit. Until April 2026 they got a child element for only the first two. Now every child counts, and the difference lands in the monthly award:
| Child element, first child | £303.94 |
| Child element, second child | £303.94 |
| Child element, third child (new from Apr 2026) | £303.94 |
| Monthly child element, 2026/27 | £911.82 |
Under the old two-child limit this household's child element was capped at £607.88 a month. The third element adds £303.94 a month, which is £3,647.28 a year, before the earnings taper is applied. For a family with four children the gain is double that. If your UC award did not go up in April and you have three or more children, check the child elements showing in your journal, because a few awards were not updated automatically.
PIP (Personal Independence Payment)
PIP has two components, each with a standard and an enhanced rate, and it is not means tested. The daily living component pays £76.70 a week at the standard rate and £114.60 a week at the enhanced rate. The mobility component pays £30.30 a week at the standard rate and £80.00 a week at the enhanced rate.
Someone who qualifies for the enhanced rate of both components receives £194.60 a week. PIP is normally paid every four weeks, and it is based on how your condition affects you against the descriptors rather than on your income, savings or employment status.
Attendance Allowance
Attendance Allowance is for people over State Pension age who need help with personal care or supervision. It pays £76.70 a week at the lower rate and £114.60 a week at the higher rate in 2026/27, the same cash amounts as the PIP daily living component.7
It is not means tested, so income and savings have no effect. Receiving Attendance Allowance can also passport you to higher Pension Credit, Council Tax Reduction and Housing Benefit awards. People under State Pension age claim PIP instead.
Carer's Allowance
Carer's Allowance is £86.45 a week in 2026/27.6 To qualify you must care for someone for at least 35 hours a week, that person must receive a qualifying disability benefit such as PIP daily living, DLA middle or high care, or Attendance Allowance, and your own earnings must be £151 a week or less after allowable deductions.
Carer's Allowance is taxable and counts as income for Universal Credit, so UC is usually reduced pound for pound. However, claiming it triggers a carer element in Universal Credit of £209.34 a month, which often more than offsets the reduction.
Child Benefit
Child Benefit is £27.05 a week for the eldest or only child and £17.90 a week for each additional child. A family with two children therefore receives £44.95 a week. It is paid every four weeks and is separate from Universal Credit, so claiming it does not reduce a UC award.
If anyone in the household has adjusted net income over £60,000, the High Income Child Benefit Charge can claw some of it back, reaching 100% at £80,000. Many higher earners still claim and either pay the charge or opt out of payments to protect their National Insurance credits.
State Pension and Pension Credit
The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27. You need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance to receive the full amount and at least 10 qualifying years to receive any State Pension at all.
Pension Credit tops up weekly income to a minimum of £238.00 for a single person or £363.25 for a couple. Its capital rules are far more generous than Universal Credit: the first £10,000 of savings is ignored and there is no upper capital limit, so a pensioner with substantial savings can still qualify.
The benefit cap
The benefit cap limits the total monthly benefits most working-age households can receive. For couples and single parents it is £1,835 a month outside Greater London and £2,110 a month inside London. For single adults without children it is £1,229.42 a month outside London and £1,413.92 a month inside London.
Several groups are exempt, including households receiving PIP, DLA, Attendance Allowance, the limited capability for work-related activity element of Universal Credit or Carer's Allowance. Earning above the monthly earnings threshold also lifts the cap.5
Where the headline rates mislead people
The mistake I see most often is treating a weekly figure as if it were monthly, or the reverse. Universal Credit is the only benefit here paid as a true calendar-monthly amount. PIP, Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance are paid every four weeks, and Child Benefit and the State Pension are quoted weekly. To turn a weekly rate into a rough monthly figure, multiply by 52 and divide by 12 (about 4.33 weeks), not by 4, or you will undercount by roughly 8%.
The second trap is assuming a published rate is what you will actually be paid. Only the non-means-tested benefits, PIP, Attendance Allowance, Child Benefit and Carer's Allowance, pay the exact headline figure. Universal Credit and Pension Credit are top-ups, so your award depends on your earnings, other income, savings, rent and household. The list below is the ceiling for the means-tested ones, not the cheque.
The third is forgetting that some of these stack. A pensioner can hold the State Pension, Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance and Council Tax Reduction at once. A carer can receive Carer's Allowance and still trigger a £209.34-a-month carer element inside their own Universal Credit. Reading one rate in isolation almost always understates the real total.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: where the rates differ
These are the rates that apply across Great Britain, but devolution changes the picture at the edges. In Scotland, several benefits are now run by Social Security Scotland: Adult Disability Payment has replaced PIP, Pension Age Disability Payment has replaced Attendance Allowance, and there is an extra Scottish Child Payment of £26.70 a week per child for families on a qualifying benefit. The cash amounts for the disability payments track the DWP rates, but you claim through mygov.scot, not GOV.UK.
Wales keeps the DWP benefits but adds its own emergency help through the Discretionary Assistance Fund and runs a more generous free-school-meals policy. Northern Ireland uses the same benefit names and rates as Great Britain but administers them separately through the Department for Communities, so claim routes and some contact details differ. If you are outside England, check the devolved page for your nation rather than assuming a GOV.UK link applies.
When these rates change and how to check your own figures
Benefit rates are uprated once a year, normally each April. The figures on this page are the confirmed 2026/27 amounts that apply for the tax year running from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, and they will be reviewed again for 2027/28.
A published rate is only a starting point, because your actual award depends on your income, rent, savings, children and household type. To turn these figures into a personal estimate, use the free calculators linked from this guide rather than relying on the headline rate alone.