Anyone know of a online calculator for HB/CTB? Used to be one in the 'Toolkit' but it doesn't seem to be there any longer. Thanks.

There are many out there, Google brings up a few. In the meantime the one's I use are:

http://online.gateshead.gov.uk/benefitscalculator/

http://www.oxford.gov.uk/web-ben-calc/

Hi

I use www.herefordshire.gov.uk as they also do a calc for tax credits at the same time

thanks
Sarah

I also know of two others

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/

and entitledto.com

both of these are general calculators to tell you all the benefits a claimant may receive, plus what the net income from employment may be.

There is another calculator called quickcalc which used to be free but now involves a small charge. This one actually takes the benefits, tax credits, tax and N.I seperately.

Thanks.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed the same problem as me with these sites:

I have now tried two of these, entitledto.com and turn2us. I find both to be generally excellent and useful. BUT, try putting in a single person, aged 25, no kids, no nothing, just income of short-term HIGHER incapacity benefit. Both these calculators award full HB, they seem to be awarding a disability premium and I can't for the life of me think why. You need to be on long-term IB to get the premium and I have made sure I have put NO other details in, nothing that could also cause a disability premium.... Has anyone else noticed this or found any other bugs?

The two calculators in question look and operate very similar. Perhaps they're from the same code. I emailed the people at entitledto.com about this ages ago and have yet to receive a reply.

So a word of warning- have a play with these things and test them out, and make sure you cover yourself with a disclaimer when advising a client. You can't beat a good old manual calculation, that's what I say!

Thu 10-Jan-08 12:23 PM by Anselmo

Further to my last post we recently tried another calculation on entitledto.com - it was a single man, aged 45, no other special circumstances and the only income we put in was an occupational pension of £62.00, which is obviously higher than his applicable amount but it insisted on giving him full Housing Benefit. There should be no disregard, surely? Was it calculating and deducting tax?!?!

Does anyone know why it might be doing this, or has anyone had similar problems?

It doesn't help that the people at entitledto.com don't exactly seem to welcome feedback. Must be six months since I tried to make them aware of the bug surrounding short-term-higher Incapacity Benefit, to no response at all...

I've never used any of these, but I did see one LA's calculator on its website that went the opposite way - no benefit when benefit should have been due...

Maybe the authors are trying to cover themselves with some quirky thing that overestimates entitlement just so they can't be sued...?

Entitled2.com home page says the site is 'under construction'...

Wouldn't you know it, just tried entitledto.com again (not sure why it says it's under construction for you Tony!) and lo and behold, the Incap problem seems to have been fixed.... But the pension one remains!

I suppose the moral of the story is to do what we always do here and always give out a very very clear disclaimer when using one of these with a client. There's no substitute for a manual calculation...

On a related note has anyone noticed the story that entitledto.com are sending out bills to organisations that they think are making too much use of their site.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/18/software_firm_bills_council_over_website_traffic/

Well of all the cheek!! I think that settles it, shan't be using them anymore!! Another calculation went totally wrong yesterday, I worked out it was about £40.00 out. It seems to have never heard of the Enhanced Disability Premium.

On a more positive note, I have found that the Ovaltech one that is used by lots and lots of councils on their websites is very good indeed, if a little more confused and less user-firendly. Do make sure, though, that your council's version is using up-to-date benefit rates/allowances- some have obviously not splashed out for the annual update!

I am now using East Lindsey District Council's at www.e-lindsey.gov.uk and I would strongly suggest anyone wanting to do estimated calculations do so too.... But I really hope they don't try to invoice me if their website traffic increases now....

from our machine's the site is still 'under construction'... Maybe they have some sort of geographical lock-out or something? For a non-techie this is my best guess...

That's very strange Mr B... You're not putting .org at the end are you? When I try www.entitledto.org I do get the under construction screen. But .com or .co.uk should work...

But, as I and others have said in this thread it may not be worth it- it seems to have some important bugs. The Ovaltech one, in my experience, is by far the most accurate.

Also, it needs to be entitledto, rather than entitled2 - that gives you the under construction as well.

That's the problem - was using entitled2. Got it now, thnx.

A bit of background info about entitledto can be found here:

http://samspade.org/whois/entitledto.com

I tried this calculator once a while ago and found errors including re IS calculations when mortgage interest was included. I emailed them to raise the problems but haven't had a response.

Wed 23-Jan-08 03:39 PM by Jill Fernandez

The standard calculator that Ovaltech supply to several local authorities are quite user-friendly and our support staff (who don't have a vast knowledge in benefits, applicable amounts etc) are content with it.

However, despite using them for quite a few years and normally getting pretty accurate figures, I have to confess, cases with exceptional circumstances are few - so it might be a different story if I bombarded the calculator with a complex situation!