For those who appear to be excluded from its cost of living support, the Department for Work and Pensions has explained how a slice of the cash can be received. It's targeted at those on specific low-income, means-tested benefits, and the £650 payment will start to arrive this week with the first £326 instalment starting from July 14, reports Birmingham Live.
The sum will go to those who receive any of: Universal Credit, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Income Support, Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit. While income-related ESA does qualify for this support, the DWP guidance specifically states: "You will not get a payment if you get New Style Employment and Support Allowance, Contributory Employment and Support Allowance, or New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance, unless you get Universal Credit."
It means those on other forms of ESA are not included in the £650, unless they also get one of the benefits that is eligible. Bristol West Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire raised the issue in Parliament, asking "the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the decision to not provide the cost of living payment to claimants of new-style Employment and Support Allowance on those claimants."
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In a written reply, DWP minister David Rutley said: "Non-means tested benefits are not eligible benefits for the Cost-of-Living Payment in their own right because people claiming these benefits may have other financial resources available to them. Many claimants of contributory and new style Employment and Support Allowance are also in receipt of a means-tested benefit. For example, as of November 2021 there were around 400,000 claimants getting both income and contributory Employment Support Allowance, and around 100,000 claimants getting Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit.
"If someone in receipt of a contributory or new style benefit makes a successful claim to an eligible benefit made after the initial qualifying date, they may qualify for the second, £324 cost-of-living payment in the Autumn."
And he added: "Contributory and new style Employment and Support Allowance claimants may also benefit from other parts of the Cost-of-Living package of support announced by the Chancellor, including the £400 rebate for domestic energy customers provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme."
What Mr Rutley is indicating is that 500,000 people who get some form of Employment and Support Allowance are already in line for the £650 cost of living payment by virtue of another benefit they receive.
With 1.8 million ESA claimants in Britain, that means the other 1.3 million won't be automatically getting the £650 payment. But Mr Rutley suggests a legitimate workaround for that group is to make a new claim for Universal Credit as well - or any of the other qualifying benefits listed above. If such an application is successful, then it will be in time for the £324 second instalment of the £650 payment when that is sent into accounts later this year.
But it will be too late for the first instalment of £326 that starts to arrive this week. In order to receive that initial sum, people would need to be either entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of Universal Credit for an assessment period that ended in the period April 26 2022 to May 25 2022, or entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support or Pension Credit for any day in the period April 26 2022 to May 25 2022.
Anyone considering a move on to Universal Credit is urged to check with welfare agencies whether they'll end up better off or not in the long run. Benefits calculators can also help determine eligibility to state support.
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