Nearly 350,000 people claiming disability benefits in the North East are due a £150 boost to help ease the cost of living crisis - and our map shows how many will benefit where you live.
Anyone receiving one of nine disability benefits will receive the £150 payment within two weeks, the DWP confirmed. This is a separate payment to the £301 cost of living sum which was paid to eight million households earlier this year.
The extra payment of £150 will go to more than 6m individuals who are in receipt of disability benefits, over a two-week period starting from June 20. In the North East, a total of £52.3m is being shared out among 348,900 people.
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County Durham has the highest number of people eligible for the pay out (75,200) in our region, meaning that nearly £11.3m will be handed out to claimants in the area. But when compared to the size of the population, residents of Sunderland and Hartlepool are also most likely to benefit.
One in six residents in both areas (16%) are set to receive £150. You can see how many people will receive the benefit where you live with this interactive map:
Anyone entitled to the payment will not need to apply, they should receive the money automatically, the DWP said. The payment reference on bank statements will appear as the person’s national insurance number, followed by “DWP COL”.
Those expecting a payment should watch out for scammers, who will use events such as cost-of-living payments to try to trick people into handing over personal details or money. In total, the payments add up to £1bn that will be used to support disabled people through the cost of living crisis.
The North West will get the biggest share of that cash (13% or £131.7m), followed by the South East (11%), and then London (10%). Of local authority areas in the UK, more money will be pumped into supporting disabled people in Birmingham than anywhere else, a total of £18.3m.
That means one in 10 people living in the city will receive the additional £150 payment (11% of the overall population). However, Derry and Strabane has the highest proportion of people claiming disability benefits in the UK. Nearly one in four people living in the Northern Ireland district are due £150.
That is followed by Ards and North Down (22%), Belfast (21%), and then Neath Port Talbot in Wales (19%) which has the highest proportion of disability benefits claimants outside of Northern Ireland.
You can see how many people will benefit in your area by typing your postcode into this interactive map
People could be eligible for the additional £150 payment if they were paid one of the following benefits on April 1, or if they are subsequently paid for that date:
In tandem with the disability payment due now, households could be eligible for a second cost of living payment of £300 if they are in receipt of the benefits including Universal Credit, Pension Credit, and older benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance and Income Support.
Pensioners are then set to benefit from £300 during the winter, and then a third cost of living payment of £299 will be paid in spring next year.
That means people on means-tested benefits will receive £900 but some people will receive up to £1,350 in direct payments.
All payments will be made automatically to eligible households, there is no need to apply.
