Martin Lewis warns you could be missing out on unclaimed benefits if you earn up to £40k

If you live in a household earning £40,000 or less then listen up, because Martin Lewis has warned you might be missing out on some benefits.

That's right, our friendly neighbourhood money-saving expert is back at it again with the helpful tips - because if there's a benefit readily available to you, why not take advantage of it?

ITV

Lewis shared his latest nugget of advice in a Mortgage Special of his ITV show, The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, where he addressed everyone's questions about mortgages as interest rates rise.

During the episode, the financial expert explained the pros of getting on to a benefits calculator to see whether you're eligible for any financial help.

Benefits calculators can be anonymous and free to use, and allow you to figure out any benefits you could get, what the payment would be, and whether they'd be affected by your working hours or changing circumstances.

Lewis specifically addressed people with a household income of £40,000 or less, saying: 'If you've got household income up to £40,000, especially at the higher level if you have kids or a high rent, get yourself onto a benefits calculator.

"Spend 10 minutes to see if you're missing out on any entitlements. £19 billion of entitlements are not being claimed by people who are due them - so it's worth the check even, if you get nothing."

Lewis' website MoneySavingExpert has a benefits calculator available for users, as does the government's website.

The tool will likely ask for a few personal details to figure out your eligibility, including information on savings, income and any benefits that you're on already.

The check can take just 10 minutes, and to speed up the process you can grab all your information beforehand on your savings income - including your partner’s - existing benefits, pensions and outgoings and council tax bill.

Once you've got all of that, the calculator on Lewis' site is able to work out if you can claim any financial help based on your income and savings.

It will also 'flag up some (but not all) of the relevant non-means-tested benefits, based on the information you provide about your circumstances', the site explains.

Lewis' warning comes after social policy software and analytics company Policy in Practice revealed in May that £19 billion of support goes unclaimed each year.

In its report, the company explained that 1.2 million eligible households are missing out on approximately £7.5 billion of Universal Credit, while a further 2.7 million eligible households are missing out on £2.9 billion of Council Tax Support.

So what are you waiting for? Get on that calculator!

Topics: Martin Lewis, Money, TV and Film

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.