What counts as savings for benefits

Hi all,

I am potentially about to be unemployed for the first time in a long while. I am looking at benefits and what I could claim.

I am looking at council tax benefit in particular (not going to claim JSA at the moment for a number of reasons), and to be eligable you have to have household savings of less than £16,000. This seems to be pretty standard for most benefits. This means things like savings, capital and investments.

My savings are less than this, however I do have a private pension that I have been saving up over the years, which currently stands at £17,000 in capital. I cannot tell whether this is something I have to include in my 'household savings' - i.e. is it something I am expected to use and draw from to cover me in a period of no or low income, or is it something that is seen as exempt because it is savings for retirement. Currently I am 31 yrs old. I can see if I was pensionable age, INCOME from the pension would count towards household INCOME, but I am not drawing anything from the pension for obvious reasons.

I have called JSA, CAB and the local council, all of whom haven't given me a straight answer.

Thanks a lot,