Cost of living payment date alert as DWP issues update for benefit claimants

The DWP has announced that certain people on means-tested benefits may be entitled to up to three Cost of Living Payments of £301, £300 and £299.

They ensured qualifying dates for these payments were “as close to the payment date as possible” to ensure only those who had recently received a means-tested benefit award would receive the money.

Labour MP Justin Madders, asked DWP why the qualifying assessment period for the first part of the £900 cost of living support, was selected as between January 26 to February 25, 2023.

In a written response on June 19, Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression, Mims Davies MP explained: “Claimants who received a nil award during the qualifying period would not be entitled to a cost of living payment. Most nil awards will be as a result of increased earnings.

“Paying those with financial resources available, which would make them ineligible for means-tested benefits, is not the intention of the cost of living payments which are aimed at those on the lowest incomes.”

The £301 payment is part of a broader cost-of-living support package worth £900.

Those eligible for the £900 payment need to have been getting any of the following benefits or tax credits on certain dates:

• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Income Support
• Pension Credit
• Universal Credit
• Child Tax Credit
• Working Tax Credit

The payment will be made separately from their benefit payments.

Most people entitled to the payment will get:

• £301 paid between April 25, 2023, and May 17, 2023, if they’re on DWP benefits
• £301 paid between May 2 and 9, 2023 if they get tax credits only
• £300 paid during autumn 2023
• £299 paid during spring 2024.

If someone has a joint claim on the qualifying dates, a single payment of £301, £300 and £299 will be sent using the same payment method used between these dates, if they’re eligible.

People will not be eligible for the Cost-of-Living Payment if their benefit is reduced to £0 for the qualifying period. This is sometimes called a ‘nil award’.

Reasons the benefit may be reduced to £0 include:

• They got more than one payment of earnings in their Universal Credit assessment period
• Their earnings or their partners went up
• Their savings or their partners went up
• They started getting another benefit
• They got a ‘sanction’ because they did not do something they agreed in their claimant commitment

Britons claiming certain disability benefits are due to receive a £150 cost of living payment from today as the two-week payment window opens.

Claimants will receive the payment between June 20, and July 4.

The payment forms part of a £26billion support package to help vulnerable Britons with rising cost pressures, as inflation persists at a high 8.7 percent.

Mel Stride, secretary of state for work and pensions, said the payment will help provide a vital financial boost to “six million” disabled people.

This is part of the broader support package that includes the separate means-tested cost of living payments totalling up to £900 and £300 pensioner cost of living payments.