MPs say "clunky" Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) systems mean struggling families will not be able to receive monthly cost of living payments next winter. The Government has announced that cost of living payments worth £900 will be given to those on means-tested benefits, with three payments made in spring 2023, autumn 2023 and spring 2024.
But MPs on the Treasury Committee called for these payments to be spread out across six instalments next winter. The MPs argued that smaller, more frequent support payments would smooth the "cliff-edges" which arise when someone who earns just one pound too much, or becomes eligible for a benefit a day too late, receives no support, LancashireLive reports.
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The Government has now responded to this suggestion and says it cannot make more frequent payments due to limitations with its systems and that doing so could compromise the delivery of "core benefits". The Government said cost-of-living payments are made using the DWP's "ad hoc payment system".
It said: "This sits outside the normal benefit delivery system and as a result, is limited in its nature – for example it can only make one payment 'type' at a time, and it requires specialist teams to make the payments." Further "mop-up" payments for some of the qualifying benefits are also expected to be made, if an entitlement that would qualify someone for a payment is later established to have existed.
The Government said it had concluded that three means-tested cost-of-living payments and a single disability cost-of-living payment "balances spreading the support throughout the year and enables sufficient time for delivery of each payment without compromising core benefit delivery".
Tory MP Harriett Baldwin, chair of the Treasury Committee, said it is "disappointing to hear that clunky systems will prevent the delivery of six regular support payments next winter". A Government spokesperson said: "We are protecting the most vulnerable households with up to £1,350 of direct support in 2023-24, on top of £1,200 delivered to millions of people last year.
"It would be impossible to choose eligibility windows for the cost-of-living payments that work for every single person, which is why the next payments are being made in three instalments to reduce the chance of someone missing out completely.
"In addition, many of our payments including cost-of-living payments, those made through the energy bills support scheme and winter fuel payments have been staggered throughout the year, while the household support fund is available all year round."
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