DWP to review £900 cost of living payment scheme - and it could mean more cash

A review of the cost of living support scheme is now being conducted by the DWP

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is conducting a full review of its cost of living payments to see if more help is needed.

Many charities, campaigners and MPs have been asking for more cash support as everyday costs stay high, but the Government has said there will be no more payments after the recent £299 sum.

Over the last year, the DWP gave £900 to households claiming certain means tested benefits, £150 to those on disability benefits, and up to £300 extra to pensioners with their Winter Fuel Payment.

The last part of the £900 package, a £299 payment, ended on February 22. Now, people can tell them about a missing payment if they think they should have got it but didn’t during the right dates. It’s thought that up to 77,000 people might still be waiting for the money.

The full list of payments this year included £301 paid between April 25 and May 17 to households on Universal Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Income Support and Pension Credit.

A further £300 was given to the same group between October 31 and November 19, and then finally £299 between February 6 and 22. The same amounts were given to those on Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit in May, November and February.

Over the summer, between June 20 and July 24, people receiving disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance, Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment and Attendance Allowance were given £150. The yearly Winter Fuel Payment had been topped up by a pensioner cost of living payment, which could be either £150 or £300 depending on age and situation.

Even with the extra support, the Work and Pensions Committee has voiced concerns, stating that these cost of living payments “were not a sufficient response to the scale of the issue and many people in receipt of the payments still could not meet essential costs or only had a temporary reprieve.”

Critics have highlighted that the £150 handed out to those on disability benefits works out to just £2.88 a week over a year. The committee has requested a detailed report on how effective the cost of living support has been, wanting it submitted before April, so they can use it to inform their decisions on any future payments in the upcoming financial year.

Responding to the issues and suggestions tabled by MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee, the DWP has now confirmed they are conducting an evaluation of the cost of living support.

In a statement, the DWP said: “One-off payments were only a part of the Government’s total support package, which totals £104 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25. State pension and benefit rates were increased by 10.1 per cent in April 2023 in line with prices growth, and with the triple lock commitment to increase the new and basic State Pensions in line with the highest of earnings growth, prices growth or 2.5%”

“From April 2024, subject to Parliamentary approval, most benefit rates will be increased by 6.7 per cent in line with prices growth, and relevant State Pension and Pension Credit rates will be increased by 8.5% in line with earnings growth. Impact assessments were conducted for both the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 cost of living payments for means-tested and disability benefit recipients.”

“An evaluation of the cost of living payments is underway. This will seek to understand their effectiveness as a means of support for low-income and vulnerable households. Fieldwork is due to commence in early 2024 with full findings available later in the year. Accelerating the evaluation to be published ahead of 2024/25 would be detrimental to the robustness of the evaluation, but any early relevant findings from the fieldwork will feed into policy-making decisions.”

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