Universal Credit
Universal Credit for any household, worked out month by month from its needs and its earnings. Amounts are a month unless they say otherwise.
Family and childcare
What childcare support your family can get, what is at stake at £100,000 of adjusted net income, and what each route to keeping it costs.
Who are you most like?
Pick the closest. Every figure is exact for that household; then change the salary, or make the numbers your own.
How this works
- Pick someone like you, or type your own figures. Nothing you type leaves this page.
- See what you keep of your pay and where the rest goes, then move the salary slider.
- See the moves that change it most, the working behind them, and keep a plan.
Every rate comes from GOV.UK and is listed under About the numbers; every figure is checked against the verified workbook. This is information to take to your payroll, pension provider or an adviser, not financial advice.
More starting points
SUE
Pre-HENRY
HENRY
Free school meals are not yet valued outside England.
Show where the pay goes as a table
What if the salary were different?
Type a figure such as 18k or 18,000. The charts and the slider stretch to include any salary you type.
Kept only in this browser's storage, on this device; untick to clear.
Your situation
Your own figures. Everything on the page follows them; the salary is set with the slider below. Amounts are for the whole year unless they say a month.
Show the working
The lever
Check your payslip: a pension taken before tax is a net pay arrangement; one taken after tax is relief at source. While you claim Universal Credit, the two cost you different amounts.
Information, not financial advice.
This year, at this salary
Month by month
Universal Credit is worked out each month on that month's pay. Enter a bonus, shares or savings to see each month. After a month that ends the award, a new claim each month is assumed: the best case.
How Universal Credit is worked out
What you keep of each extra £100
Move along the chart with a mouse or finger, or select it and use the arrow keys. Each numbered line is listed under "Where things change".
Show the chart as a table
Where things change
Share of pay taken, overall
Your plan
What's coming
Keep these figures
Who can help
Questions and answers
- What is this for?
- To show what you keep from your pay, what takes it, and the one or two moves that change it most, with every figure worked out exactly for a household like yours in the 2026 to 2027 tax year.
- Is it advice?
- No. It is information: the rules, applied to the figures entered, with the sources shown. It names no products or providers and recommends nothing. Regulated advice comes from an authorised adviser; free guidance from MoneyHelper and Citizens Advice.
- Where do the numbers come from?
- From GOV.UK and HMRC, one source per rate, listed with the date checked under About the numbers. Every figure is checked against a verified workbook; you can run those checks yourself with the button on that page.
- Does anything I type leave my device?
- No. All the arithmetic runs in your browser. The site counts visits in aggregate with no cookies and no identifiers; see Terms and privacy.
- Why does SUE still get Universal Credit at a high salary?
- Because rent and 85% of childcare sit inside the maximum award, and the award falls by 55p for each £1 of take-home pay above the work allowance. With high rent and childcare that can run to the £70,000s; the page shows where it ends for any household.
- What is salary sacrifice?
- Giving up some pay in return for your employer paying that amount into your pension. Income tax and National Insurance are not charged on the pay given up. Your employer has to offer it; payroll or HR will know.
- Why does childcare support vanish at £100,000?
- Funded hours and Tax-Free Childcare are lost in full once either parent's adjusted net income passes £100,000. Pension contributions and Gift Aid reduce adjusted net income, which is why the page sizes a move to that line.
- Who pays the Child Benefit charge?
- The partner with the higher adjusted net income, on their own income; the other partner's income does not count, and there is no choice.
- Does it work for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
- Yes: Scottish and Welsh income tax rates and the Scottish Child Payment are built in. Free school meals are valued for England only for now.
- How do I keep my figures?
- Tick "Remember my figures on this device" in step 2 (this browser only), or use Save in step 5 to download a figures file you can open later on any device.
- Can I add it to my phone's home screen?
- Yes. On iPhone: open sueandhenry.com in Safari, tap the share icon, then "Add to Home Screen". On Android: open it in Chrome, tap the menu, then "Add to Home screen" or "Install". It then opens full-screen and works offline.
- The file I downloaded shows no figures on my phone.
- A file preview (Files on iPhone, HTML Viewer on Android) cannot run the calculations. Open sueandhenry.com in a browser instead, or open the file in Safari or Chrome.
- I think a figure is wrong.
- Email [email protected] with the starting point, the salary and the figure. Every report is checked against the workbook and the source.
Terms of use and privacy
Terms of use
SUE and HENRY is an information tool. It shows what UK income tax, National Insurance, student loan repayments, the Child Benefit charge, pension rules, childcare support and Universal Credit do to a household's pay in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, using rates taken from GOV.UK and listed under About the numbers with the date each was checked. It is not financial, investment, tax or benefits advice, and it does not recommend any product, provider or course of action; the figures are illustrations of the rules, worked out exactly for the facts entered, and a household's real position can differ for reasons the page does not ask about. Decisions, and any action taken on them, remain yours; regulated advice is available from an authorised financial adviser, and free guidance from MoneyHelper and Citizens Advice. The page is provided as it is, without warranty, and its author accepts no liability for loss arising from its use; it is checked against a verified workbook and its sources, and errors found can be reported to [email protected].
Privacy
The figures you enter never leave your device: every calculation runs in your browser, the page sends nothing to any server, and no cookies are set. If you tick "Remember my figures on this device", the figures are kept in this browser's own storage on this device only, where you can clear them by unticking the box; nothing is copied anywhere else. The site counts visits in aggregate (pages, country, device type, browser) using Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and no identifiers, and records which starting point, salary band, nation and step were used, as counts in bands with no individual record — nothing that could identify you or your figures. If you email us or send a plan to yourself, that content is yours and leaves through your own email app; what we receive we keep only to correspond with you and improve the page. If you choose to join a mailing list, your email address is used only for the updates you asked for, with an unsubscribe link in every message. Questions to [email protected].
About the numbers
Marks: ◇ changes each year; ✱ changed recently; ⚠ a change is announced or the figure is uncertain; § fixed in law. "Checked" is when it was last compared with its source.
Re-runs 530 checks of this page's calculations against figures recorded from the verified workbook, here in your browser.