Thousands of people on Universal Credit could miss out on cost of living payments.
The Department of Work and Pensions are now issuing the first of three payments of £301 to households to help with the cost of living. The first payments are being issued between April 25 and May 17 for most people on DWP benefits.
But as Birmingham Live has previously reported, the Department for Work and Pensions has warned that a 'nil award' of Universal Credit will disqualify a claimant from getting the £301 sum in a range of circumstances, which includes a sanction for breaking benefit rules in the 'claimant commitment' they agreed to. Other reasons include high earnings, or a sudden increase in savings to more than the £16,000 limit - such as from redundancy pay or an inheritance.
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Others may lose out if they start getting another benefit, pushing up their overall household income to a level too high to have any Universal Credit as well.
The other reasons that won't make you eligible for the cost of living payment, including the following:
- You got more than one payment of earnings in your Universal Credit assessment period
- Your or your partner’s earnings went up
- Your or your partner’s savings went up
- You started getting another benefit
- You got a ‘sanction’ because you did not do something you agreed in your claimant commitment
Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft raised the matter with a parliamentary question, asking if the DWP could "make an estimate of the number of claimants who will not receive the first cost of living payment in 2023 following application of sanctions to their Universal Credit."
In a written reply, Mims Davies, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, said: "People who have a Universal Credit claim but their award is nulled (received a nil award) during the qualifying period will not be entitled to a Cost of Living Payment.
"During the qualifying period for the first 2022/23 Cost of Living Payment of £326, an estimated 7,000 households received a nil award due to sanctions. People are only sanctioned if they fail, without good reason, to meet the conditions they agreed to. 97.6 per cent of sanctions in the quarter to October 2022 were applied for failing to attend a mandatory appointment at a Jobcentre.
"These sanctions can often be resolved quickly by claimants getting in touch and attending their next appointment. If someone with no Universal Credit award due to a sanction re-engages with us they may get one of the later Cost of Living Payments. We will be delivering the means-tested cost of living payments in three separate payments in 2023/24, reducing the chances of someone missing out altogether."
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