How does state pension affect benefits?

Hi Katie and welcome

Is your husband retiring from work ?
Is your husband on your ESA claim ?
Your PIP award is non means tested and will not be affected

CR

Hi @kjc

State Pension is classed as income for all income-related benefits. This includes Housing Benefit and income-related ESA.

I'm not sure from your post if your ESA is an income-related joint claim with you as main claimant, or whether it is a contributions based claim solely for you.

If it is an income related ESA claim, then the ESA will reduce by the amount of the pension, and this may mean that the ESA stops entirely - the rate of ESA (before any Pension is deducted) will increase to include a Pension Premium.

As an alternative to income related ESA you could look at Pension Credit in your husband's name - again this is an income-based benefit, which is only paid to Pensioners. 
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/older-people/benefits-for-older-people/#pension_credit

If your ESA is contributions based, it will not be affected by your husband's pension.

As regards Housing Benefit, the extent to which this may be affected is kind of dependent on your other benefits - if you receive ANY income-based ESA or Pension Credit, then your Housing Benefit will be unaffected as you will still be 'passported', whereas if your ESA is contributions based, then this and your husband's pension will be added together and your Housing Benefit calculated accordingly - this can reduce the amount of Housing Benefit you receive.

If you know the figures you could use a benefit calculator to figure out your exact entitlement:-
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Hope this helps - do let us know if you need further clarification on anything!

Kind regards

Mary