Families claiming legacy benefits such as Tax Credits should start receiving their second cost of living payments later this week.
The £324 payment, the last part of the £650 payment announced by then Chancellor Rishi Sunak earlier this year, has been paid to 99% of all Universal Credit by the Department of Work and Pensions starting on November 8. Now it's the turn of the households still in receipt of so-called 'legacy benefits', who have not yet been transferred to Universal Credit.
The later payment schedule, from November 23-30, is to avoid duplicate payments if families are transferring to Universal Credit. The payment will be managed by HMRC.
Read more: Five Universal Credit changes on the way after Autumn Statement - and how they will affect you
To get the money in this later batch of payments, you must have claimed one of the following benefits between August 16, 2022 to September 25, 2022:
- income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Income Support
- Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Working Tax Credit
The payment will be made automatically and separately from your benefit. Once HMRC has paid the £324 to legacy benefits claimants, a total of 8.2 million households - or nearly one in four in the UK - will have to receive the £650 Cost of living Payment, nearly 400,000 of which are in the North East. The total cost will be £5.4 billion. In addition, around 6.3 million people who receive a qualifying disability benefit have received a one-off £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment, at a total cost of £0.9 billion.
The £650 payment was announced in May as part of the Government's cost of living relief package. In addition, there is also an extra £300 payment to pensioners directly in November or December alongside the Winter Fuel Payment.
People who received this year's £650 cost of living payment are also set to receive another round of help, after new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced an additional £900 in his Autumn Statement, as part of a package of measures aimed at helping low-income households through the cost of living crisis.
Although the payment dates have not yet been announced, they are thought to be in time for next winter. The payment will be made in more than one instalment, and DWP and HMRC have said that they will provide further details on payment dates "in due course". The payment will be tax-free, not count towards the benefit cap, and will not have any impact on existing benefit awards.
The DWP recently resumed its plans to move all claimants currently receiving legacy benefits over to Universal Credit after the switch was paused during the pandemic, with those living in Northumberland among the first to be migrated. However, the migration to Universal Credit from income-related Employment and Support Allowance is being pushed back to 2028 from the planned date of 2024, Jeremy Hunt announced last week.
However, claimants of other legacy benefits will still be moved over by the end of 2024. This includes:
- Working Tax Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income Support
- Housing Benefit
Now read:
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