The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recently announced that more than six million people claiming disability benefits will receive a one-off £150 cost of living payment between Tuesday, June 20 and Tuesday, July 4. Payments will be made automatically, which means nobody needs to apply for the extra financial support.
However, in an update on the official cost of living payments 2023/24 page on GOV.UK, DWP warns that “if you receive a Disability Cost of Living Payment, but we later find that you were not eligible for it, you may have to pay it back”.
This advisory may be due to statistics published in the new ‘Fraud and Error in the benefits system’ report which estimates that £410 million (4.9%) in cost of living payments (across all benefits) were overpaid during the 2022/23 financial year. The total UK Government expenditure on cost of living payments last year was £8.4 billion.
