Cost of living support payments

Inquiry

The Work and Pensions Select Committee is conducting an inquiry looking into the Government’s cost of living support packages for 2022–23 and 2023–24. Individuals, researchers and organisations with a view of the terms of reference are welcome to submit evidence to the Committee.

When introducing the newest cost of living support payments for Spring 2023, Rt Hon Mel Stride MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pension, said the Government was sticking by its “promise to protect the most vulnerable”, and that the payments were to “provide vital support next year for those on the lowest incomes”. The Committee would like to explore whether the DWP has been successful in meeting this objective, and whether the adequacy of support made available to eligible households was sufficient in helping them meet the basic cost of living. The Committee will also explore whether the design and delivery of support meant that some individuals were deemed ineligible for support, and as a result were prevented from accessing some, if not all, of the payments.

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House of Commons

Work and Pensions Committee

Cost of living support

payments

First Report of Session 2023–24

Report, together with formal minutes relating

to the report

Ordered by the House of Commons

to be printed 8 November 2023

HC 143

Published on 14 November 2023

by authority of the House of Commons

Work and Pensions Committee

The Work and Pensions Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to

examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Work

and Pensions and its associated public bodies.

Current membership

Sir Stephen Timms MP (Labour, East Ham) (Chair)

Debbie Abrahams MP (Labour, Oldham East and Saddleworth)

Shaun Bailey MP (Conservative, West Bromwich West)

Siobhan Baillie MP (Conservative, Stroud)

Neil Coyle MP (Labour, Bermondsey and Old Southwark)

David Linden MP (Scottish National Party, Glasgow East)

Steve McCabe MP (Labour, Birmingham, Selly Oak)

Nigel Mills MP (Conservative, Amber Valley)

Selaine Saxby MP (Conservative, North Devon)

Dr Ben Spencer MP (Conservative, Runnymede and Weybridge)

Sir Desmond Swayne MP (Conservative, New Forest West)

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are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk.

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Cost of living support payments 1

Contents

Summary 3

1 Introduction 5

Background to the cost of living support payments 5

Initial package of cost of living support payments 5

Second package of cost of living support payments 6

Our inquiry 6

2 Access to the cost of living support payments 8

The support payment system 8

Ineligibility for cost of living payments 9

Cliff edges 9

Low-income households not in receipt of cost of living payments 11

The Household Support Fund 12

3 The impact of the cost of living support payments 15

Comparing the UK and International policy responses 15

The OECD energy support measure tracker 15

The impact of the payments on households 16

Positive impact and uses of the payments 16

Limitations of the payments 17

Impact of the payments on vulnerable groups 19

Support for older people 19

Support for those with disabilities 20

The irregular nature of the payments 22

Uprating benefits as an alternative to cost of living support payments 22

The uncertain timings of cost of living payments 24

Conclusion 25

Annex 1: Public survey accompanying the inquiry 26

Annex 2: Lived experience questionnaires and semi-structured interviews 39

Recommendations for how the Government could help with the cost of living 44

Conclusions and recommendations 46

Formal minutes 49

Witnesses 50

Published written evidence 51

List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 53

Cost of living support payments 3

Summary

Following increased cost of living pressures due to energy price rises and high inflation,

the Government issued a further package of cost of living support measures in 2023/24

to protect the most vulnerable against rising costs. These measures included a series of

cost of living support payments for those in receipt of certain benefits. These payments

followed the issuing of similar payments in 2022/23.

Our report builds on the work we have done previously and published in our July

2022 report on the cost of living. While that report looked more generally at various

Government measures to try and help households with the rising cost of living, this

report specifically examines the effectiveness of these payments in 2022/23 and 2023/24

in supporting the most vulnerable. In doing this we also build on the work of our fellow

House of Commons Committee, the Treasury Committee, and its December 2022

report on cost of living payments.

We explore how the payment system worked, eligibility and access for the payments,

and alternative support if a recipient was not eligible for the payments. We also look at

the impact and limitations of the payments for those who received them, and how the

support compared to similar international systems of support. This inquiry specifically

looked at the additional payments given to those who receive benefits and not support

that was available to everyone, such as the energy price guarantee.

We welcome the automated nature of the payments which removed a barrier to access

for many and enabled the swift issue of cash support for those in need. However, we are

concerned by the cliff edge nature of the payments which created an income gap where

a person was financially penalised if they earned just over the qualifying threshold.

Those paid on a non-monthly basis are particularly at risk of being unfairly penalised.

We are also concerned that the support payments have not reached all low-income

households. Further, the unsophisticated nature of the payment system has placed

significant limitations on how the system has met the needs of different groups such as

families, older people and those with disabilities.

Overall, the payments have had a significant impact and have boosted the finances of

low-income households. But we have heard these payments are not a sufficient response

to the scale of the issues at hand, and many people in receipt of these payments still

could not meet essential costs or had only a temporary reprieve. We are particularly

concerned that the additional support offered to those with disabilities was only £150

per year and we recommend that this particular support be increased in proportion to

the costs that people with disabilities incur.

The Government should consider bringing forward its evaluation of the cost of living

payments so that preliminary analysis can be fed into decisions on possible future

payments in the next financial year. Given we have also heard that an uplift of the

regular benefits received would be more beneficial for budgeting than ad-hoc cost of

living support payments, the Government should consider uprating Universal Credit

instead of issuing these payments. It should maintain the ad-hoc payment system for

those on legacy benefits as these benefits cannot be so easily uprated.

4 Cost of living support payments

When examining international support for those facing cost of living pressures, we

found that most comparable nations offered families with children and young people

additional support. While the UK has been relatively generous in cash terms to those in

need of additional support, this failure to provide extra support for families is notable

and should be examined further by the UK Government as those with children face

higher costs but have currently only received the same flat-rate support as people without

children. Future cost of living support payments should take account of family size.

Cost of living support payments 5

1 Introduction

1. Over the past two years the UK has faced intense cost of living pressures with many

people struggling to meet the rising costs of essentials. Although it has gone down over

the last year, in September 2023 the consumer price inflation was still 6.7% in the UK,

creating challenges for many households.1 In May 2022, the Government acknowledged

that “millions of households across the UK are struggling to make their incomes stretch to

cover the rising cost of living” and announced support measures in response in May and

November 2022.2 These measures included two sets of cost of living payment packages

for the financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24. The implementation and impact of these

payments are the basis for this inquiry.

Background to the cost of living support payments

Initial package of cost of living support payments

2. In the wake of high inflation and rising energy costs, and the subsequent increased

cost of living across the UK during 2021 and 2022, a package of one-off cost of living

support measures was announced by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Rishi

Sunak MP, on 26 May 2022.3 This was aimed at protecting the most vulnerable in society

against rising costs. Three elements of the support package provided additional cash

payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (and HM Revenue and Customs

and the Ministry of Defence) to recipients of certain benefits or tax credits. These cost of

living payments consisted of:

• A £650 Cost of Living Payment, payable in two instalments, to recipients of

certain means-tested benefits;

• a £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment for recipients of certain non-meanstested disability benefits; and

• a £300 Pensioner Cost of Living Payment, paid as an addition to the Winter

Fuel Payment, to households with at least one person entitled to a Winter Fuel

Payment for winter 2022/2023.4

3. The package also included additional funding to extend the Household Support Fund,

which allows local authorities in England to make discretionary payments to people most

in need of help towards the rising cost of bills.5 The Barnett formula has been applied to

each round of the Household Support Fund to allocate equivalent funding to the devolved

administrations.6 It has been the prerogative of the devolved administrations to decide

how to allocate this funding.

1 ONS, Consumer price inflation, UK: September 2023

2 HM Treasury, Cost of living support factsheet: 26 May 2022 [accessed 2 October 2023]

3 HC Deb, 26 May 2022, col 451–452 [Commons Chamber]

4 Department for Work and Pensions, ‘Cost of Living Payment 2022,’ accessed 2 October 2023

5 Department of Work and Pensions, Household Support Fund guidance, accessed 2 October 2023

6 HM Treasury, Devolved administration funding and the Barnett formula, accessed 2 October 2023

6 Cost of living support payments

Second package of cost of living support payments

4. In the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022 the Chancellor, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt

MP, announced that a further set of cost of living payments would be awarded over the

course of 2023/24. The payments would be made to recipients of the same benefits as

the 2022/23 cost of living payments, the key differences being that payments for meanstested benefit recipients would total £900 rather than £650, and would be made in three

instalments rather than two. He also announced that the Household Support Fund would

be extended for a further 12 months to 31 March 2024.7

5. In January 2023, the Government outlined when instalments of the 2023/24 cost of

living payments would be made, noting payments would be “spread across a longer period

to ensure a consistent support offering throughout the year”.8 These payments were:

• A first Cost of Living Payment of £301 during Spring 2023;

• A second Cost of Living Payment of £300 during Autumn 2023; and

• A third Cost of Living Payment of £299 during Spring 2024.9

Each cost of living payment was linked to an assessment period completed before the

payment. If a person was entitled to a payment for a qualifying benefit in the assessment

period they then automatically received the cost of living payment.10

Our inquiry

6. Our inquiry examined the Government’s cost of living support packages for 2022/23

and 2023/24 and whether the DWP has been successful in reaching and supporting the

most vulnerable people during this period. We have explored whether the adequacy of

support made available to eligible households was sufficient in helping them meet the

basic cost of living. We also explored the design and delivery of the payment system and

its effectiveness in issuing these payments.

7. This inquiry builds on our previous work on the cost of living and the report we

published in July 2022.11 While that report looked at various Government measures to try

and help households with the rising cost of living, this report specifically examines and

goes into more depth on the effectiveness of the packages of cost of living payments in

supporting the most vulnerable. Unlike our previous report, this report does not examine

other measures which were available to everyone like the Council Tax Rebate or Energy

Bills Support Scheme. This report also builds on the work of the Treasury Committee and

its report on the cost of living payments published in December 2022.12

8. As part of our inquiry, we asked organisations and individuals to send us written

evidence, and also ran a survey for people to tell us their personal experiences of the cost

7 HC Deb, 17 November 2022, col 854

8 “Millions of low-income households to get new Cost of Living Payments from Spring 2023”, Department of

Work and Pensions press release, 3 January 2023

9 “Millions of low-income households to get new Cost of Living Payments from Spring 2023”, Department of

Work and Pensions press release, 3 January 2023

10 Department of Work and Pensions, “Cost of Living Payments Guidance 2023 to 2024”, accessed 2 October 2023

11 Work and Pensions Committee, Second Report of session 2022–23, The cost of living, HC 129

12 Treasury Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2022–23, Autumn Statement 2022 – Cost of living payments, HC

740

Cost of living support payments 7

of living support payments. The survey was open between 3 and 16 April 2023, and we

received over 1,900 responses. We also conducted outward engagement through the Select

Committee Engagement Team, holding distributed dialogues with people with a learning

disability who were affected by the payments but would be unable to complete the survey.

Summaries of our survey and distributed dialogue results can be found in the annexes

of this report. We have drawn on these responses to supplement our formal evidence. It

is important to underline that the people who responded were a self-selecting group and

that their experiences cannot be assumed to be representative of everyone receiving cost

of living payments. Nevertheless, their first-hand experiences offer valuable insights into

people’s experience of the cost of living payments.

9. We have also heard from charities about the experiences of the people they support

and from experts including academics on the effectiveness of the payments and potential

alternatives to this system of payments currently being implemented. In addition, we

explored how the UK Government’s support payments have compared to the support

offer available in other comparable countries. We also heard from Mims Davies MP,

Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression, and from DWP officials responsible

for the implementation of the support payments. As ever, we thank witnesses for their

willingness to give evidence to the Committee.

10. In this report, Chapter 2 will focus on access to the support payments. It will cover:

• How the payment system issues the payments to those eligible;

• Those ineligible for cost of living payments due to cliff edges in the benefit system

caused by qualifying thresholds for eligibility for the payments. This ineligibility

may be caused by sanctioning or non-monthly pay schedules;

• Low-income households who are ineligible for the payments; and

• The Household Support Fund and its effectiveness in supporting those for whom

the cost of living payments do not reach or do not help enough.

11. Chapter 3 will examine the impact of the support payments, including:

• The positive impacts and limitations of the payments;

• The impacts of the payments on more vulnerable groups such as those with

disabilities and older people; and

• The irregular nature of the payments, the impact this had and whether uprating

of benefits would be more effective.

8 Cost of living support payments

2 Access to the cost of living support

payments

12. In this Chapter we explore access to cost of living support payments and limitations

to the eligibility criteria, as well as the role of the Household Support Fund in England.

Cost of living payments are issued automatically to those eligible by the Department for

Work and Pensions (DWP) through its Ad Hoc Payment System. Mop-up payments then

take place for anyone who is eligible but who missed out on the payment. Concerns have

been raised that many households may be missing out on payments due to being just above

the qualifying threshold, or through being on a non-monthly pay cycle, which could leave

these households significantly worse off than those who are just under the threshold and

receive the payments. We also heard directly from 753 respondents to our survey who

were not eligible for the payments and were struggling with the cost of essentials.13 The

Minister told us that the Household Support Fund, which local authorities can use to give

support for essentials for those who do not receive payments, or for whom the payments

are not enough, is supposed to act as backup in such cases.14

The support payment system

13. The cost of living support payments are made using the DWP Ad Hoc Payment

System which sits outside, and is separate to, the normal benefit delivery system.15 We

heard evidence from the DWP that the system is a clone of a payment system developed

during the Covid-19 pandemic to issue heating payments in Northern Ireland.16 It was

described by Neil Couling, Change and Resilience Director General with responsibility

for DWP’s cost of living payments, as “a rather unsophisticated system” utilised to enable

a large number of payments to be issued quickly.17 The payment system is limited in the

number of activities it can manage concurrently and payments must be of a single type

and value.18

14. To issue payments the system utilises the DWP data warehouse and links to DWP’s

accounting and payment system to create an accurate record of payment recipients. The

system recognises those who have received the payment of a qualifying benefit in the

qualifying period. Those eligible are then automatically issued with a cost of living support

payment.19

15. For anyone who believes they have missed a payment there is a reporting system on

gov.uk to make a claim. This is then processed in the mop-up payments which are done

continuously after the automated payments are issued.20 The largest source of mop-up

payments involves Pension Credit as Pension Credit can be backdated by three months,

which enables claimants to become eligible for a previous cost of living payment.21

13 Annex 1: Public survey accompanying the inquiry

14 Q93

15 Department for Work and Pensions (CLP0033)

16 Qq87–88

17 Oral evidence taken on 11 January 2023, HC 971, Q18

18 Treasury Committee, Fourth Special Report of Session 2022–23, Autumn Statement 2022 – Cost of living

payments: Government response to the Committee’s Eighth Report, HC 1166

19 Department for Work and Pensions (CLP0033); Oral evidence taken on 11 January 2023, HC 971, Q18

20 Q103

21 Q89

Cost of living support payments 9

16. The automated nature of the payments has been commended by many groups,

such as Feeding Britain, a network of anti-hunger partnerships, and Citizens Advice, an

advisory service for members of the public, as it made sure that most eligible households

did not miss out on benefits to which they were entitled by removing the requirement

to apply for the payments.22 However, the basic nature of the ad hoc payment system

means it is not possible to vary the size of payments to take into account family size or the

additional needs of certain groups.23 Save the Children stated “the fact that they were paid

as a lump sum and at a flat rate meant that many families did not get the support, they

needed in the way they needed it.”24 Mencap also raised concern that “the flat-rate nature

of the £900 cost of living payments and the low-figure sum of the £150 disability cost of

living payment do not adequately account for the disproportionately high extra costs that

disabled people face.”25

17. We welcome the automated nature of the payment system, which enabled the swift

issue of cash support to many of those most in need. However, we recognise that it is

limited in its ability to target payments and therefore meet the additional needs of

certain groups.

Ineligibility for cost of living payments

Cliff edges

18. We heard a large amount of evidence raising concerns about the cliff edge nature

of the eligibility criteria for the cost of living payments. A cliff edge is when a benefit

entitlement, in this case the cost of living payment, is entirely withheld at a certain

qualifying threshold for eligibility, whereas those whose benefit entitlement falls just

beneath this qualifying threshold still receive the full payment. The qualifying threshold

for eligibility means that some households can just miss out on all cost of living support,

while some others can just qualify.

19. In evidence to us Policy in Practice, a social policy software and analytics company,

observed that “a household earning only £1 above the level at which they would qualify

for a means tested benefit will miss out on up to £1,200 in cost of living payments over

the course of the year.”26 This would be the case if a household missed out on all the cost

of living payments. This problem was emphasised by Helen Barnard, Director of Policy,

Research and Impact at the Trussell Trust, who, when speaking to us, stated “it makes the

last pound of Universal Credit way too important for people”.27 Maxwell Marlow, Director

of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, reiterated this point that the “last pound really

is very important … having a bit of a smarter system with a better taper rate that is a little

better adjusted and more accurate would definitely help”.28

20. We received evidence from a number of individuals, in response to both our call for

evidence and to our survey, that they missed out on a cost of living payment, that they

22 Feeding Britain (CLP0006), Citizens Advice Newcastle (CLP0009) and Barnardo’s (CLP0048)

23 Qq111–113

24 Save the Children (CLP0049)

25 Royal Mencap Society (CLP0037)

26 Policy in Practice (CLP0055)

27 Q5

28 Q36

10 Cost of living support payments

would have normally been entitled to, due to a nil award for Universal Credit during the

qualifying period. This included one respondent who revealed that that one qualification

period was the only month in 10 years that they had received a nil award.29

21. Additionally, a number of those who gave evidence to our inquiry raised the concern

that people who were sanctioned, and as a result had their Universal Credit entitlement

suspended in a qualifying period, were in effect doubly punished: first by the sanction

itself and then by the consequential loss of entitlement to a cost of living payment.30

22. Further, in some cases, missing a payment could be the result of a pay system

which operated on a weekly and not monthly system and it was therefore not because

the recipients were above the qualifying threshold during the assessment period. Citizens

Advice Newcastle pointed out that “some people on universal credit are at risk of missing

out because of how the eligibility period falls in relation to their assessment period and

pay frequency.”31 This point was expanded by the Child Poverty Action Group, a charity

that works to alleviate child poverty, who stated “those who are paid on a non-monthly

basis invariably receive an ‘extra’ pay cheque in an assessment period (even when their

earnings follow a consistent pattern) which will considerably reduce their UC payment,

sometimes to zero.”32

23. Several contributors argued that a fairer method of determining eligibility among

Universal Credit claimants would have been for the qualifying period to have had a longer

timeframe, enabling those with a one-off increase in earnings to remain entitled to the

payment.33

24. In response to our questions about this problem Neil Couling told us that the

Department had modified the second batch of payments for the 2023/24 financial year,

and had “staggered the qualifying period for later payments, so they are not in a 13-week

cycle”. This meant that if someone who was “paid either fortnightly or weekly miss[es] one

of the payments because their earnings have accrued in that month and they don’t qualify

for Universal Credit in that month, they qualify for the next two.”34

25. We are concerned by the cliff edge nature of the cost of living payments which

creates a fundamentally unfair income gap where a person is financially penalised for

earning just over the qualifying threshold, being in receipt of a sanction or not receiving

an eligible payment during the qualifying period. For example, a person earning just

£5 over the qualifying threshold would lose nearly £300 if they are ineligible for a cost

of living payment and would be significantly worse off than someone just under the

threshold.

26. People who receive Universal Credit and are paid on a non-monthly basis, even

if their earnings follow a consistent pattern, can fail to meet the eligibility criteria in

a qualifying period. We recognise that the Government has taken steps to mitigate

the risk of an individual missing more than one cost of living payment if they are

29 Anonymous (CLP0019)

30 Dr Rita Griffiths (Research Fellow at University of Bath) (CLP0014), Brighton & Hove City Council (CLP0035),

Refuge (CLP0038) Policy in Practice (CLP0055) and Public Law Project (CLP0056)

31 Citizens Advice Newcastle (CLP0009)

32 Child Poverty Action Group, Changing Realities (CLP0028)

33 Dr Rita Griffiths (Research Fellow at University of Bath) (CLP0014) and Child Poverty Action Group, Changing

Realities (CLP0028)

34 Q103

Cost of living support payments 11

paid fortnightly or weekly. This mitigation is not enough given a recipient of Universal

Credit on such a pattern would still miss one of the cost of living payments and a

considerable amount of support. Anyone who misses a cost of living payment due to

receiving regular earnings on a non-monthly basis should be issued the missed payment

in the mop-up system.

27. The Government should change the eligibility for the final cost of living payment in

2023/24 and for any possible future payments so that Universal Credit (UC) claimants

who receive a nil UC award in the qualifying period, but received a payment in the

previous and subsequent assessment period, qualify for a cost of living payment. This

could be incorporated into the mop-up payment system.

Low-income households not in receipt of cost of living payments

28. In response to the Autumn Statement the Resolution Foundation said that four in

ten of the poorest fifth of households in the UK do not receive means-tested benefits.35

Greater Manchester Poverty Action, a not-for-profit organisation that works to address

poverty across Greater Manchester, said that this had “left many households without any

buffer”.36 Age UK also raised concern that “there are many older people with low incomes

who are in need of extra support but who do not receive Pension Credit.”37 Those in this

situation would not receive the cost of living payments.

29. We also received over 750 responses to our survey from those who had not received

cost of living payments. Several respondents commented about how they were going

further into debt because of increased costs. Some discussed spending savings to pay for

essentials, including one who said they were using up savings “that were meant for my

retirement”. Some referred to not having the heating on to keep bills down, with one being

“frightened to put on the heating”. A number of responses also commented on the impact

of not being able to afford essentials on their mental health with one commenting it “made

me ill with stress”, another saying it “intensified fear of, and depression about, the future”

and a third stating they felt “suicidal”.38

30. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) also pointed out that “the cost of living

payments have not been made available to all people on a lower income receiving meanstested support from the DWP, notably, people who receive housing benefit.”39 Morgan

Wild, Head of Policy at Citizens Advice, expanded on this saying that housing benefit

“probably affects around 100,000 working age households and around 370,000 pensioner

households” and “we know that most people in that situation will be on a low income

and may be eligible for income related benefits if they had applied.”40 CPAG and Citizens

Advice suggested that, in order to reach those households not currently receiving cost

of living support payments, the eligibility criteria could be expanded to include those in

receipt of housing benefit. Charities supporting older people were particularly enthusiastic

about this proposed reform with Sally West, Policy Manager for Age UK, telling us that

35 Resolution Foundation, Help Today, squeeze tomorrow: Putting the 2022 Autumn Statement in context

(November 2022) pp. 18–19

36 Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) (CLP0020)

37 Age UK (CLP0017)

38 Annex 1: Public survey accompanying the inquiry, [Q3] What effect did not receiving the support payments have

on you?

39 Child Poverty Action Group, Changing Realities (CLP0028)

40 Q4

12 Cost of living support payments

“we would like to see cost of living payments extended to people who are getting housing

benefit”.41 We have calculated that if housing benefit had been an eligible benefit for the

cost of living payments 2023/24 this would have cost the Government £458 million.42

31. We are concerned that support payments do not reach all low-income households

in receipt of benefits as some households only receive housing benefit. The Government

should consider adding Housing Benefit as a qualifying benefit for future cost of living

support payments and set out the practicalities of doing so.

The Household Support Fund

32. The Household Support Fund was first announced on 30 September 2021 to enable

local authorities in England43 to provide help with essentials to vulnerable households.44

It has since been extended three times with the last time being as part of the 17 November

2022 Autumn Statement when a further £1 billion of funding was announced and the

fund was extended until 31 March 2024.45

33. In our assessment of the Household Support Fund in our Cost of Living Report,

published in 2022, we concluded the funding was welcome but we voiced concerns as to

whether or not it was supporting the most vulnerable households effectively. Therefore, we

recommended that the Government should:

• ensure councils were well supported to deliver the funding to the households

who need it the most and asked the Department to publish information on what

local authorities had spent this funding on to date; and

• by the end of this Parliament, the Government should review the adequacy of

benefit levels and publish its findings. This should include a specific review of the

adequacy of disability benefits and should consider whether it is appropriate to

continue to rely on discretionary funds and one-off payments.46

34. In response to these recommendations the Government stated:

We have published the Management Information (MI) for all completed

discretionary schemes, including the Covid Winter Grant Scheme, Covid

Local Support Grant and the first Household Support Fund. We also expect

to be publishing the MI for the current iteration of the Household Support

Fund after the closure of that scheme.47

41 Q25

42 This figure is extrapolated from the total number of individuals who either claim only housing benefit, or both

housing benefit and state pension. According to the DWP’s National Statistics on Benefit Combinations and

DWP benefits statistics: August 2023 this is a total of 508,904 people which would equate to £458,013,600 if all

of them received all three cost of living payments.

43 The Barnett formula has been applied to each round of the Household Support Fund to allocate equivalent

funding to the devolved administrations. It has been under the prerogative of the devolved administrations to

decide how to allocate this funding.

44 “Government launches £500m support for vulnerable households over winter”, Department of Work and

Pensions press release, 30 September 2021

45 HC Deb, 17 November 2022, col 854 [Commons Chamber]

46 Work and Pensions Committee, Second Report of Session 2022–23, The cost of living, HC 129 p 18

47 House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, Third Special Report, The cost of living: Government

Response to the Committee’s Second Report of Session 2022–23, (HC 732) 7 September 2022, p 3

Cost of living support payments 13

It went on to state that it does “not intend to conduct a specific review into the adequacy of

benefit levels” as “There is no objective way of deciding what an adequate level of benefit

should be as everyone has different requirements, and beneficiaries are free to spend their

benefit as they see fit, in the light of their individual commitments, needs and preferences.”48

35. The Government argued that the Household Support Fund serves to help anyone who

requires essentials but who is missed by the cost of living support payments, or for whom

the payments are not sufficient. In her evidence to us Mims Davies MP, Minister for Social

Mobility, Youth and Progression, said the fund was “drawn up with those circumstances

in mind” and acts “as a safety net”.49

36. Indeed, some local authorities have claimed the Household Support Fund is a better

means of supporting those in need of assistance than cost of living payments. In evidence

to us Leicestershire County Council explained that the Household Support Fund enabled

the council to “utilise a range of support mechanisms to best target cost-of-living support

for people in hardship who are most in need.” Their process enabled council officers to

“ascertain if a household is in need of further support or referral into other services and to

initiate provision of that additional … support.” As such they went on to argue that their

approach was more effective than small, intermittent cost of living payments which had

no wider support mechanisms in place.50

37. However, concerns have been raised that a reliance on the Household Support Fund

makes accessing support more challenging for those in need. Policy in Practice said that

while the “Household Support Fund goes some way towards supporting those who are

ineligible for the cost of living payments, the need to apply and the discretionary nature

may act as a barrier to access.”51 Meanwhile, the Public Law Project raised concern that

“the level of support will be more modest, uncertain and dependent on a particular

Local Authority.”52 Other groups similarly stated the Household Support Fund created a

“postcode lottery of support and access”.53

38. Further, in our one-off evidence session in April 2023 on the Household Support

Fund we heard that many households in need either were not aware of the Household

Support Fund,54 or assumed they would not be eligible for support, and therefore did

not apply.55 It was suggested that increasing awareness of the Household Support Fund,

and providing households with a breadth of avenues to apply for support, were crucial to

increasing the effectiveness of the fund.56 Alex Clegg, senior policy and data analyst at

Policy in Practice, told us that:

lack of awareness is the biggest barrier … Other barriers that came up

for us were internet access, which is hard to picture because it feels so

readily available to us, but in times of crisis especially people might not

48 House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, Third Special Report, The cost of living: Government

Response to the Committee’s Second Report of Session 2022–23, (HC 732) 7 September 2022, p 3

49 Q93

50 Leicestershire County Council (CLP0021)

51 Policy in Practice (CLP0055)

52 Public Law Project (CLP0056)

53 Southampton Anti-Poverty Forum, SCRATCH, Southampton City Mission (CLP0024)

54 Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Household Support Fund, HC 1273, Q2 [Alex Clegg and Dr Rita

Griffiths]

55 Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Household Support Fund, HC 1273, Q29 [Dr Rita Griffiths]

56 Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Household Support Fund, HC 1273, Q19 & Q28

14 Cost of living support payments

even have their devices available to access the internet; people who do not

speak English; disability or illness; and people who might struggle to access

support during work hours if they are working.57

39. We heard that there has been “quite a bit of confusion” as to whether people with

no recourse to public funds have been able to access the Household Support Fund.

Oliver Crunden, a Senior Policy Researcher at Citizens Advice, told us that “authorities

are hesitant to use the funds if there is any risk that you could jeopardise someone’s

immigration status and claim”.58 In a letter to us, DWP’s Permanent Secretary told us

that Local Authorities can only use HSF funding under “specific powers or duties” to

support people with NRPF, “for example, where support is required to meet a child’s

welfare needs”. The implication of this appears to be that some people with NRPF will not

be able to access support through the HSF, either because they will not be deemed to have

qualified, or because of constraints in time and understanding from local authorities. The

Permanent Secretary added in his letter that he could not provide us with a definitive list

of circumstances under which a Local Authority can make payments.59

40. We are concerned that some people with no recourse to public funds could be

denied Household Support Fund (HSF) support from local authorities, despite

potentially being eligible for such support, due to a lack of clarity in the guidance.

We are also concerned that some people with no recourse to public funds will not be

able to access support through the HSF because there are no specific powers or duties

which can be used to enable their access to funding. The Government should clarify in

the Household Support Fund guidance the circumstances when a local authority can

use the Household Support Fund to assist those with no recourse to public funds. We

certainly hope this would explicitly include families with children who otherwise meet

HSF’s eligibility criteria.

41. The Household Support Fund has enabled the provision of support to vulnerable

households who are not eligible for the cost of living support payments or for whom

the payments are not sufficient. However, we are concerned by the uneven nature

of support offered by the Household Support Fund which can be a postcode lottery

dependent on the local authority in which a person lives. A lack of awareness of the

fund seems to have resulted in those eligible, and in need, not applying for support. As

a result of this we reiterate our concern, raised in our cost of living report in 2022, that

a question remains as to whether or not the fund is supporting the most vulnerable

households effectively.

42. If the Government continues to issue cost of living support payments in the next

financial year, it should maintain the Household Support Fund as it is an important

safety net for those ineligible for these payments and other means tested benefits. In doing

so, ahead of the next financial year, the Government should better communicate and

advertise the fund to make sure that people are aware of its existence. The accessibility

of the application process should be improved to enable people who may be disabled, do

not speak English, do not have access to the internet, or may struggle to access support

during working hours, to apply.

57 Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Household Support Fund, HC 1273, Q28

58 Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Household Support Fund, HC 1273, Q21

59 DWP, Household Support Fund: Guidance for people with no recourse to public funds, 20 October 2023

Cost of living support payments 15

3 The impact of the cost of living

support payments

43. We have found through the evidence we received and through our survey results (see

Annex 1 for more information about the survey) that the cost of living payments have had

a substantial impact and been helpful to those who received them. However, there is some

debate about the long-term impact of the payments and whether they have given enough

support to those who required help to meet the cost of essentials. The irregular nature of

the payments with their uncertain timings has also been a point of contention and we

explore if smaller more regular payments would be more effective.

Comparing the UK and International policy responses

44. In response to rising inflation since late 2021, countries around the world have offered

financial assistance similar to the UK’s cost of living payments and other measures to

support household finances. As in the UK, countries have embraced a range of different

interventions. Targeted financial support topping up social assistance benefits has been

one approach, but also, as in the UK, more has been spent on directly subsidising energy

costs, and on other forms of support. In this report we have not looked at the Government’s

significant energy support package as this applied to all citizens, not just those in receipt

of benefits.

The OECD energy support measure tracker

45. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been

tracking policy responses to rising inflation through its energy support measures tracker.60

This tracker aims to take stock of all government interventions to support energy users

since February 2021 and provides an estimate of the associated budgetary costs. It allows

users to compare amounts spent in different countries on support measures.

46. According to the OECD Energy Support Measures Tracker the UK ranks third out of

the 41 countries measured in terms of total US dollar (USD) expenditure on government

interventions to support energy users since February 2021. The UK ranks 15th when this

is measured as a percentage of GDP.61

47. When only non-energy related income support is assessed (these are measures which

directly increase the disposable income of beneficiaries through budgetary transfers or

tax reductions without any link to energy consumption) the UK ranks first out of the 41

countries measured in terms of total USD expenditure on government interventions, and

seventh when this is measured as a percentage of GDP.62

48. Fran Bennett, Associate Fellow from the University of Oxford, told us that the

elements of support packages from other countries are “quite similar with the cost of

60 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Energy Support Measures Tracker, accessed 2

October 2023

61 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Energy Support Measures Tracker, accessed 2

October 2023

62 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Energy Support Measures Tracker, accessed 2

October 2023

16 Cost of living support payments

living package that we have done in the UK”.63 We later heard examples of similarities

between the UK system and other countries from Dr Jennifer Robson, a professor of

political management in Canada, who told us that over half of the Canadian provinces

issued temporary cash transfers to their residents64 and Dr Miroslav Štefánik, Director

at the Institute of Economic Research Slovak Academy of Sciences, who told us social

assistance recipients in Slovakia received some ad-hoc €100 payments during 2022.65

The international academics who gave evidence generally reflected positively on the UK

system of payments, complementing its “co-ordinated effort” and the automated nature of

the system which they thought was particularly important.66

The impact of the payments on households

Positive impact and uses of the payments

49. Having considered international approaches, we now turn to looking at the impact

in practice of the UK’s cost of living payments. The majority of those who contributed

to our inquiry, both in written and oral evidence and through our survey, said that the

payments were welcome, useful and had a positive impact on the households who received

them. Several local authorities praised the payments, with Southwark Council telling

us that “the extra income has and continues to protect many of those households from

hardship by ensuring they had money to pay for food, energy, and other essentials as the

cost of these items soared.”67 Blackpool Council added that “the system has been great in

getting the money out to residents”.68 Academic researchers who wrote into our inquiry

also commended the payments, with Dr Rita Griffiths at the Institute for Policy Research

at the University of Bath advising us that the payments “have been effective at providing

a much-needed boost to the finances of low-income households”.69 Dr Kate Andersen and

her colleagues at the Benefit Changes and Larger Families research study stated “the cost

of living support payments were very welcome”.70

50. The DWP stated that “households in England in the bottom 10 percent of the income

distribution would receive support worth the equivalent of around seven percent of their

net income” and that “receipt of payments enabled families to clear debt, pay for essentials

and meet immediate household needs.”71

51. A number of those who gave evidence said most people who received cost of living

payments spent them on immediate household needs such as buying food, household

essentials and paying bills.72 The Trussell Trust conducted a survey with YouGov which

included 1,646 people who had received the first cost of living support payment of £326 in

63 Q51

64 Q67

65 Q65

66 Q71

67 London Borough of Southwark (Southwark Council) (CLP0047)

68 Blackpool Council (CLP0053)

69 Dr Rita Griffiths (Research Fellow at University of Bath) (CLP0014)

70 Dr Kate Andersen (Research Associate at University of York); Professor Aaron Reeves (Professor of Sociology and

Social Policy at University of Oxford); Dr Ruth Patrick (Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at University of York); Dr

Kitty Stewart (Associate Professor of Social Policy at London School of Economics) (CLP0023)

71 Department for Work and Pensions (CLP0033)

72 Citizens Advice Newcastle (CLP0009), Dr Rita Griffiths (Research Fellow at University of Bath) (CLP0014) and

Christians against Poverty (CLP0034)

Cost of living support payments 17

July 2022. Within this sample 64% of recipients said they used the money to buy food, 38%

to buy basic toiletries and 36% to pay off debts or arrears on bills.73 These were the most

common purchases with the payments.

52. Charities and organisations which run, or support, food banks told us that food banks

saw a temporary fall in usage in the month following the issue of a cost of living payment.74

Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research and Impact at the Trussell Trust, explained

that while 2022 saw the highest ever need for food banks, in July after the first payment

the Trust experienced a 21% dip in food bank usage compared to what they would have

expected. This was repeated after the payment in November 2022 where the Trust saw a

15% dip in usage, and again after the payment in April 2023 where the Trust saw a 23%

dip. She went on to state that the payments “clearly made a significant difference, but you

see that it was a very short respite. The payments come out, and for between one and three

weeks you see that dip, then the need shoots up again.”75

53. Additionally, many of those who responded to our survey, who received at least one

of the payments, said that the payments “helped” with additional costs. When asked how

they helped, over 50% of respondents said they used the payments for bills, while 40% of

respondents mentioned using the payments for food.76 Respondents to our survey stated

that the payments “helped hugely, stopped me from getting into any further debt”, “Made

things slightly easier, especially energy costs”, “helped a great deal … towards my food

bills” and “I wouldn’t have been able to feed my family without it”.77

54. We also received evidence that some of the payments were used to pay for larger

one-off purchases. The Benefit Changes and Larger Families research study found that

one beneficiary of a payment used it to buy a bed for their child.78 The study led by Dr

Rita Griffiths found that the payment allowed one family to have a holiday break for

the first time in three years, while other households made one-off payments to replace

a faulty washing machine and pay for car repairs.79 The Trussell Trust survey noted that

7% of recipients said they used the money to pay for repairs or an MOT for their car or

motorbike, 4% used the money to replace a major electrical good that had broken and 2%

used the money to purchase adequate furniture.80

Limitations of the payments

55. Whilst the vast majority of responses welcomed the payments, we were also told that

the payments were limited in their impact and in most cases the payments were perceived

as not going far enough given the scale of the cost of living pressures households faced.

73 The Trussell Trust (CLP0036)

74 Feeding Britain (CLP0006), Citizens Advice Newcastle (CLP0009) and The Trussell Trust (CLP0036)

75 Q2

76 Annex 1: Public survey accompanying the inquiry, [Q3] How and to what extent did the cost of living payments

help offset the costs you were facing?

77 Annex 1: Public survey accompanying the inquiry, [Q3] How and to what extent did the cost of living payments

help offset the costs you were facing?

78 Dr Kate Andersen (Research Associate at University of York); Professor Aaron Reeves (Professor of Sociology and

Social Policy at University of Oxford); Dr Ruth Patrick (Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at University of York); Dr

Kitty Stewart (Associate Professor of Social Policy at London School of Economics) (CLP0023)

79 Dr Rita Griffiths (Research Fellow at University of Bath) (CLP0014)

80 The Trussell Trust (CLP0036)

18 Cost of living support payments

56. Responding to our survey question asking to “what extent did the cost of living

payments help”, one respondent stated “they helped somewhat … but it was not enough

because energy, food and other prices have risen considerably”. Another stated they were

“exceedingly helpful but still not enough to cover increases in bills and rent”. Many other

survey responses described the payments as helping “a little”, “slightly” and “not enough”

or as being “short term” and only providing support “for a week or two”.81

57. Greater Manchester Poverty Action said that “The support packages introduced are a

sticking plaster and do not address the underlying causes of rising poverty”.82 While In Kind

Direct, a charity focused on distributing consumer products to those who need them, told

us “cost of living payments have not been sufficient in helping households meet the cost of

all necessary essentials” and “charities in our network have increasingly become a source

of essentials for people as the basics become unaffordable”.83 Burmantofts Community

Projects, a debt and benefits advice charity based in West Yorkshire, emphasised the

limitation of the payments, saying “even after Cost-of-Living support people had deficit

budgets and were having to make cuts that affected their ability to heat and or eat.”84

58. Of particular concern was the lack of dedicated support for families. The Child

Poverty Action Group told us that the largest flaw in the payments is that family size

is not taken into account and as a result “the payments, at most, provided temporary

relief”.85 The Southampton Anti-Poverty Forum also raised the issue that larger families

have higher costs yet cost of living support payments are at a flat rate and ignore this.86

59. Fran Bennett, Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford, emphasised that one

striking difference was the number of countries which gave more to families with children

which was something the UK chose not to do.87 This was reiterated by our international

academics who explained that specific family support policies were introduced in Germany

and Slovakia as well as in one of the Canadian provinces.88

60. In her evidence session to this inquiry Mims Davies MP, Minister for Social Mobility,

Youth and Progression, when asked if she felt the Department had met the scale of this

challenge, said that the Government would “have an evaluation of the cost of living

payments, and we will begin that next year once this phase is concluded”. She went on

to say she would be happy to share the evaluation when it was finished but she could not

assess the payments until the evaluation was complete.89

61. The cost of living payments have had an important impact and boosted the finances

of low-income households. However, one-off 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. The Government has stated it will

conduct an evaluation of the cost of living payments next year. The Government should

81 Annex 1: Public survey accompanying the inquiry: [Q3] How and to what extent did the cost of living payments

help offset the costs you were facing?

82 Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) (CLP0020)

83 In Kind Direct (CLP0027)

84 Burmantofts Community Projects (CLP0045)

85 Child Poverty Action Group, Changing Realities (CLP0028)

86 Southampton Anti-Poverty Forum, SCRATCH, Southampton City Mission (CLP0024)

87 Q51

88 Q66

89 Qq75–76

Cost of living support payments 19

bring forward its evaluation of the cost of living support payments so that preliminary

analysis can be fed into decisions on possible future payments ahead of the next financial

year. The evaluation should be published before the start of financial year 2024/25.

62. While the UK support has been relatively generous compared to other countries,

other countries have issued specific support for families and children, which the

UK Government has not. Given the flat rate nature of the cost of living payments, the

Government should conduct an analysis of the value of the support received by lowincome families with children compared to the support received by single people and

couples. Further, future cost of living support payments should take account of family

size.

Impact of the payments on vulnerable groups

Support for older people

63. A number of organisations dedicated to supporting older people gave evidence to our

inquiry. They all expressed support for cost of living payments during this period of high

inflation and increased costs. Care & Repair Cymru, a charity who describe themselves as

older peoples’ housing champions, said the payments were an important “lifeline to many

households”, while Age UK said the payments “have made an important difference to many

older households.”90 The fact that these payments were linked to Pension Credit and that

Pension Credit can be backdated by three months allowed the recipient to retrospectively

put in a claim for a cost of living payment: this was considered a particularly good part of

the policy. Sally West, speaking on behalf of Age UK, described it as “very good hook to

get publicity around benefits going unclaimed”.91

64. However, of particular concern were those older people who did not receive Pension

Credit. Age UK noted that the cliff edges already discussed in Chapter 2 of this report

could hit those who missed out on Pension Credit more harshly than an average person.

They pointed out that:

an older person with an income of say £1 above the Pension Credit threshold

could be well over £1,000 worse off than someone receiving Pension Credit

because they will not be able to receive: the £900 cost of living payment, the

warm home discount of £150, £25 cold weather payments in weeks when

the weather is particularly cold, a free TV licence (if they are 75+), plus

other support.92

65. Age UK also pointed out that the full rate of new State Pension is now £2.80 more

than the standard Pension Credit rate for a single person. This means someone with only

the full new State Pension is likely to just miss out on Pension Credit and linked support.93

As a result Age UK feared that “there are many older people with low incomes who are in

need of extra support but who do not receive Pension Credit.”94

90 Care & Repair Cymru (CLP0011) and Age UK (CLP0017)

91 Q27

92 Age UK (CLP0017)

93 Age UK (CLP0017)

94 Age UK (CLP0017)

20 Cost of living support payments

66. To support those eligible for Pension Credit, DWP informed us that it has taken steps

to improve the take-up of Pension Credit. In March 2023 it released television adverts

highlighting that a successful application will also qualify for cost of living payments

and it wrote “to over 11 million pensioners to notify them of the up-rating of their State

Pensions, with an accompanying leaflet that includes prominent information promoting

Pension Credit”.95

67. We commend the Government’s efforts to promote Pension Credit to those entitled

to it, though there is still more to do to increase take-up as we remarked on in our July

2022 Cost of Living report. We remain concerned that there are low-income pensioner

households who may just miss out on Pension Credit and as a result are significantly

worse off compared to those who receive it and its passported benefits, including cost

of living payments. The Government should devise and implement a policy to address

this unfairness.

Support for those with disabilities

68. The charity Scope estimated that on average a household with at least one disabled

adult or child needs an additional £975 a month to have the same standard of living as

non-disabled households, and on average the extra cost of disability was equivalent to 63%

of household income after housing costs.96 In their evidence to us Mencap cited this data

and raised concern that:

the Government has failed to adequately recognise the increased costs that

disproportionately impact people with a learning disability … people with

a learning disability have been impacted by the cost of living to a far greater

degree and the existing cost of living payments are not commensurate with

the scale of need.97

Mencap went on to say that the “flat-rate nature of the £900 cost of living payments and

the low-figure sum of the £150 disability cost of living payment do not adequately account

for the disproportionately high extra costs that disabled people face,” especially as the

one-off disability payment is less than a quarter of the additional monthly costs disabled

households face as outlined by Scope.98

69. Maddy Rose representing Mencap, told us: “£150 has been inadequate. It has effectively

just replaced the warm home discount payment that many disabled people received and

are now ineligible for since 290,000 were removed from that scheme”.99 She went on to

say that it was “equivalent to £2.88 per week, which is clearly not commensurate with the

need” especially given the extra costs those with a disability face as they often require

“certain foods” or have “significantly increased energy needs” they cannot reduce due to

the fact these are often due to “mobility and hygiene” requirements.100

70. In his evidence, Ed Hodson, an independent researcher with 12 years’ experience

working at Citizens Advice, observed that the disability payment looked “like one-off

95 Department for Work and Pensions (CLP0033)

96 Scope, Disability Price Tag 2023: the extra cost of disability, accessed 2 October 2023

97 Royal Mencap Society (CLP0037)

98 Royal Mencap Society (CLP0037)

99 Q9

100 Q12

Cost of living support payments 21

token charity awards to those the government of the day have identified as “deserving

poor” rather than any real attempt to address actual ongoing cost-of-living financial

pressures”.101

71. 199 of the 1,140 responses (17.5%) to our survey who received cost of living payments

said they only received the £150 disability payment. Almost all of these responses said

the help represented by this individual payment was extremely limited. A selection of

the responses to the question ‘what extent did the payment help with the costs you were

facing’ were:

• “it was gone instantly”;

• “the £150 Disability Payment did not help with the Cost of Living crisis at all”;

• “it didn’t even cover one month’s gas and electricity bill”; and

• “It was far short of the support I needed” and it was “a drop in the ocean”.102

72. Within the distributed dialogues that we conducted with those with a learning

disability we found that, while most respondents said that the payments helped, some

emphasised that they were still unable to fully meet their costs. Some participants

discussed having to rely on other sources of financial support, including borrowing from

friends, in order to buy essentials.103

73. The Minister, Mims Davies MP, when asked how the Department arrived at the

one-off figure of £150 cost of living payment for disabled people, said she did not know

the reason for choosing £150 as a payment figure as it was before her time in the role,

but she stressed that “if you are disabled, you would be entitled to various interventions

accordingly, so the extra amount wouldn’t just be the £150.”104 In the same evidence session

Katy Roberts, Deputy Director of Poverty Strategy at the DWP, stated that “85% of people

who get that £150 cost of living disability payment will also be receiving either the meanstested or the pensioner payment. That is an example of how the cost of living payments

work as a package”.105 The Minister provided follow-up information to the Committee on

the factors taken into consideration when determining cost of living payments generally.106

In that letter she also noted how the benefit system provided additional support to people

with long-term health conditions or disabilities, but did not set out the detailed process for

determining the level of the disability cost of living payment.

74. The cost of living payments do not provide a suitable level of support for vulnerable

groups who are impacted to a greater extent by the cost of living crisis, such as those

with disabilities, and do not cover the additional costs these people face. This is

especially true if those who receive the £150 cost of living payment are not entitled to

any of the other cost of living payments. We have not seen an adequate explanation for

101 Mr Ed Hodson (Independent Community Researcher at Freelance) (CLP0025)

102 Annex 1, [Q3] How and to what extent did the cost of living payments help offset the costs you were facing?

103 Annex 2: Lived experience questionnaires and semi-structured interviews

104 Q108

105 Q109

106 Correspondence from the Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression relating to Cost of living support

payments

22 Cost of living support payments

how £150 was determined as a suitable bridging payment for those with disabilities.

The Government should set out a detailed reasoning as to why a payment of this size was

considered correct.

75. Should there be future cost of living payments, or similar ad hoc support, the

Government should increase the financial support for those with disabilities in

proportion to the additional costs that they incur.

The irregular nature of the payments

Uprating benefits as an alternative to cost of living support payments

76. There were concerns that the infrequent nature of the cost of living support payments

had made it difficult for people on low incomes to budget. Several submissions suggested

that an uplift of the regular benefits received would be more beneficial. These submissions

stated that changing to monthly payments would help recipients manage their finances

and budget by providing consistency.107 For example, Brighton and Hove Council reported

that their staff found that “applicants who receive lump sum payments find that they are

absorbed immediately into debt and crisis abatement. It’s harder then to manage their

day-to-day spending.”108

77. Morgan Wild, from Citizens Advice, told us:

the evidence is pretty clear that, for policy design, it is better to have

increments to Universal Credit than a system of one-off payments. That does

have certain drawbacks. As you mentioned, there were ongoing problems

with the legacy system in trying to extend the £20 uplift to that system,

so it may be the case that while we maintain the legacy system, we need

a parallel system of one-off payments for them while having an uplift for

everybody else. That would make the entire process a lot smoother … [and]

would remove a great degree of arbitrariness in who receives a payment.109

78. In the same evidence session Helen Barnard added that we “need to think about

stability of income as well as amount of income” and “ having fluctuating payments makes

that far harder”. She emphasised the need for a social security system which helped people

stabilise their finances to make planning and budgeting easier.110

79. A few researchers argued that larger one-off payments were at times preferred to a

smaller, more regular uprating. Dr Griffiths said, while some people say that “they would

have preferred to have had a regular, monthly amount added to their benefit”, for some

people getting a lump-sum paid into their bank account meant that the additional money

“felt more tangible” whereas the previous £20 Universal Credit uplift “got lost within the

107 Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) (CLP0020), Southampton Anti-Poverty Forum, SCRATCH,

Southampton City Mission (CLP0024) and Brighton & Hove City Council (CLP0035)

108 Brighton & Hove City Council (CLP0035)

109 Q7

110 Q7

Cost of living support payments 23

benefit payment”.111 Further, Fran Bennett, Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford,

told us that “one-off payments were appreciated by some people because they were flexible

and because they came all at once and you could pay off a particular thing”.112

80. In response to our questions about uprating benefits rather than issuing cost of living

payments, Neil Couling, Change and Resilience Director General with responsibility

for DWP’s cost of living payments, explained that you can uprate the Universal Credit

system quickly but the other systems, including for legacy benefits, can only be uprated

once a year and this takes about five months to complete. He also said that if the DWP

only uprated Universal Credit and not the other benefits it would face an equal treatment

challenge which they would probably lose.113

81. When presented with the alternative of increasing regular Universal Credit payments

and just using the one-off payment system to provide support for legacy benefit claimants,

Mr Couling said it would be possible to use the one-off payment system for the remaining

legacy benefit claimants as the system works as “long as you can identify the group that

you want to pay”.114 He caveated this by saying he did not know what the legal position of

such an option would be.115

82. Our previous recommendations to the Government regarding the implementation of

one-off payments are outlined in Box 1.

Box 1: Previous recommendations from the Work and Pensions Committee report on

the cost of living

• While we understand that in this case one-off payments may have been quicker to

put in place, and able to reach more people, we agree with the Secretary of State’s

opinion from 2021 that they are not the preferred approach. We recommend that

other options, such as more responsive benefit uprating, are prioritised in future.

• The Department must be able to uprate legacy benefits swiftly in times of high

inflation. … We repeat our recommendation that the DWP work to increase the

speed with which changes can be made to legacy benefit and state pension rates.

In response to these recommendations the Government said, “Given working-age

legacy benefits are closing and those legacy claimants will be moved to UC by 2024,

we will not be making any IT changes. There are no plans to change the up-rating

period: using a consistent period for up-rating, for example, the 12 months to

September to measure inflation means any peaks and troughs even out over time.”

Source: <House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, Second Report of Session 2021–22: The cost of living, (HC 129),

Paras 17 & 23; House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, Third Special Report - The cost of living: Government

Response to the Committee’s Second Report of Session 2022–23, (HC 732) 7 September 2022, p.2>

83. It is clear that an uplift of regular working age benefits received would be more

beneficial than ad-hoc cost of living support payments as it would better enable

households to budget and reduce the chance of a recipient losing out on a major oneoff payment. The Government have explained it is not possible to quickly uprate legacy

benefits, however it can quickly uprate Universal Credit. We also note this problem

will disappear once the transition to Universal Credit is complete. The Government

111 Dr Rita Griffiths (Research Fellow at University of Bath) (CLP0014)

112 Q43

113 Qq81–82

114 Qq85–86

115 Q85

24 Cost of living support payments

should clarify the legal position as to whether it can uprate Universal Credit and only

maintain the one-off payment system for those on legacy benefits. If this can be done,

and should further cost of living payments be required next year or in the future, the

Government should uprate Universal Credit and only maintain the one-off payment

system for those on legacy benefits.

The uncertain timings of cost of living payments

84. In January 2023, the Government only gave an indication of when instalments of

the 2023/24 cost of living payments would be made, stating that “exact payment windows

will be announced closer to the time”.116 This situation exacerbates the difficulty already

mentioned for people on low incomes to budget as there is uncertainty as to when the

payments will come through.

85. In a response to a December 2022 Treasury Committee report on cost of living

payments, the Government said qualifying dates would be announced after they have

passed. The response went on to state that:

this is to deter fraud and to mitigate risks to work incentives. As individuals

will not know the qualifying dates in advance, this limits their ability to

change their behaviour during the qualifying period to ensure they are

eligible for an underlying benefit.117

In response to this concern Morgan Wild representing Citizens Advice told us that while

it may be rational to suppress your income, in practice people are not doing this.118 Helen

Barnard from the Trussell Trust added that “people do not have the level of financial

buffer that would lead them to make those decisions.”119

86. When we challenged the Minister about publishing the payment dates she insisted:

“we do not want to be stopping people from taking a job or taking a start-up date, where

invariably they will be better off, because they are going to change their behaviour to get

a cost of living payment.”120

87. We recognise that the Government is concerned that publishing exact payment

windows could encourage fraud and disincentivise people from taking work

opportunities. However, the irregular nature of these payments, along with the

uncertainty of when they will be received, continues to make household budgeting a

challenge. If the Government decides to issue further cost of living payments in the next

financial year, it should announce the payment dates (but not the qualifying period) in

advance. This would improve the ability of households to budget whilst still mitigating

the risk of fraud and risks to work incentives.

116 Department for Work and Pensions, Millions of low-income households to get new Cost of Living Payments

from Spring 2023”, 3 January 2023

117 Treasury Committee, Fourth Special Report of Session 2022–23, Autumn Statement 2022 – Cost of living

payments: Government response to the Committee’s Eighth Report, HC 1166

118 Q29

119 Q29

120 Q104

Cost of living support payments 25

Conclusion

88. To conclude, we recognise the importance of the cost of living support payments in

helping the most vulnerable in this period of increased costs. These payments have clearly

had an important impact and we are impressed by the speed and automated manner of

their distribution. However, we remain concerned that in many cases, despite the UK being

an international leader, the support was not sufficient to meet the scale of the problem

and the payments only offered a short-term reprieve for those who received them. We

hope that the Government will carefully consider the recommendations in this report,

especially when planning for the next financial year if future cost of living payments will

be issued.

26 Cost of living support payments

Annex 1: Public survey accompanying the

inquiry

Cost of living support payments survey

1) To accompany our call for evidence for this inquiry we ran a survey for members of

the public to inform us of their lived experiences of the cost of living support payments

and whether or not they received them.

2) This survey was a branching survey with two routes. Route A was for those who

received the payments. Route B was for those who did not receive the payments.

Table 1: Survey questions to inform lived experience for cost of living support payments inquiry.

Route A Route B

1. Have you received cost of living support

payments?

1. Have you received cost of living support

payments?

2. Which cost of living payments did you

receive (tick all that apply):

A. Low-income payments

B. Disability payments

C. Pensioner payments

2. Why did you not receive cost of living

support payments? [Tick box, select one]

Don’t get relevant qualifying payments at

all.

Didn’t get relevant payments during the

qualifying period.

Other: [Free text response up to 50 words].

3. How and to what extent did the cost of

living payments help offset the costs you

were facing?

[Free text response]

3. What effect did not receiving the

support payments have on you?

[Free text response]

4a. How good a job do you think the

Government did of making people aware

of these payments?

1 = Very ineffective

2= Slightly ineffective

3 = neither effective nor ineffective

4= Slightly effective

5 = Very effective.

4. What ongoing support do you think the

Government should provide to people to

help with the cost of living?

[Free text response]

4b. How did you find out about the cost of

living payments?

[Free text response]

5. What ongoing support should the

Government provide to help people in

receipt of social security with the cost of

living?

[Free text response]

Cost of living support payments 27

3) The survey was open for responses between 3 and 16 April 2023 and was advertised

on the Committee’s social media as well as with various stakeholders. It was also promoted

by the Select Committee Engagement Team.

Methodology for analysing free text responses in the survey

4) For a number of the questions respondents were invited to fill in an open text

response to answer the question. For several questions this left us with tens of thousands

of words of responses to review. In order to analyse this free text we assigned each free

text question a series of umbrella terms such as bills, housing, food and loans. We then

compiled a collection of key, regularly recurring, words related to each umbrella term.

For example, the umbrella term bills would have the key words bill, utilities, gas, water

and electric assigned to it. We then counted the number of responses that included one of

these key words. and extrapolated the percentages of respondents who were referring to

this umbrella term.

5) These percentages should be treated with caution as they are not quantitative tallies

to single or multiple-choice questions, and so offer only a rough approximation of the total

numbers who were discussing these overarching terms. A respondent may have discussed

one of the selected umbrella terms without having used the key words selected or a key

word may have been used outside of the context of the umbrella term.

Distributed dialogues

6) Upon the launch of the survey we received requests for an accessible version of the

survey to help capture the experiences of those with a learning disability or other reason

which would make it difficult to complete the survey online. In response to these requests

we conducted outward engagement through the Select Committee Engagement Team to

hold dialogues with some of those who were affected by the payments but would not

be able to complete the survey. This engagement was supported by three organisations:

Enable, Opening Doors and Z2K. This engagement consisted of a number of interviews

and distributed dialogues utilising the main cost of living payments survey as a guide. A

summary of the results from the distributed dialogues can be found at Annex 2.

Survey Responses

[Q1] Have you received cost of living support payments?

7) We received 1,903 responses in total. Of these 1,140 respondents informed us they

had received at least one cost of living support payment, 753 respondents said they have

not received any payments and 10 did not say if they received a payment or not. The

breakdown between those who received and did not receive payments can be seen in

Figure 1.

28 Cost of living support payments

Figure 1: Chart of percentage breakdown of survey respondents who did or did not receive cost of

living payments

Results of survey branch A (those who received the cost of living

support payments)

[Q2] Which cost of living payments did you receive?

8) 1,140 respondents informed us they had received at least one cost of living support

payment. Of these 584 received one or more of the low-income payments, 542 received

the £150 disability payments and 363 received the £300 pensioner payments. Percentage

totals of the numbers of respondents who received each type of payment can be seen in

Figure 2. Please note many of these recipients received a combination of these three types

of payment.

Cost of living support payments 29

Figure 2: Percentages of each type of payment survey respondents received

89. Table 2 reveals the number of respondents to the survey who received each

combination of payments.

Table 2: Breakdown of combinations of payments received by survey respondents

Types of payments received Numbers who received this combination of

payments

Low-income payments only 295

£150 Disability payments only 199

£300 Pensioner payments only 253

Low-income payments and disability

payments

249

Low-income payments and pensioner

payments

16

Disability payments and pensioner

payments

70

Disability payments, low-income payments

and pensioner payments

24

[Q3] How and to what extent did the cost of living payments help offset

the costs you were facing?

Text Analysis

9) Respondents were invited to fill in an open text response to answer this question.

As discussed in the free text methodology section earlier in this annex we compiled

collections of key words under the umbrella groups; bills, food, loans and housing and

30 Cost of living support payments

extrapolated the total number of times these terms were referred to in the responses. The

percentage of respondents who mentioned each of these umbrella terms in their response

is compiled in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Percentages of people who mentioned the following topics in their survey responses.

Text responses

10) We have also compiled a selection of responses which give an overview of the range

of different answers to this question and demonstrate the extent to which the cost of living

payments helped offset the costs respondents faced.

Comments from those who received the low income payments and other

payments, or just the low income payments:

The payments ensured that I could remain relatively independent whilst

simultaneously being more able to avail of several available measures (and

their associated costs) that would protect, sustain and improve my health

and well-being, and independence, for example, by being more able to

afford; healthier foods and drinks, warmer clothes, exercise equipment and

household items such as electric blankets and appropriate bedding.

They helped hugely, stopped me from getting into any further debt

Made things slightly easier, especially energy costs.

They helped a great deal with my gas and electric payments and towards my

food bills.

I wouldn’t have been able to feed my family without it.

Couldn’t have survived without them

Cost of living support payments 31

I don’t know how I would have coped without them.

Just about covered the increases, but a little extra to give a buffer would be

much appreciated

Massively. I could not have used heating without the support unless I went

into debt.

They were certainly a help but even with them and the energy payments I was

living in one, cold room. My savings have taken a hit.

They helped somewhat, and I certainly appreciated them, but it was not

enough because energy, food and other prices have risen considerably and I

have special needs for food and personal care products.

It’s still not enough to cover rising costs

Helped slightly but still massively struggling

Payments were inadequate compared to rise in costs

Helped to pay essential bills

Exceeding helpful but still not enough to cover increases in bills and rent.

Very little with all bills soaring, shopping items continue to rise way above

inflation rate on a weekly basis

It helped a lot with everything going up in price. Whilst I appreciate this extra

money it unfortunately isn’t enough and nothing seems to be improving.

It helped me for a week or 2 then I was back in the same place I was before

Helped slightly but not enough to keep up with soaring costs

They did help but with gas and electric so expensive and food it was really

not enough

It’s not enough, you have a choice eat or heat your home, you cannot do both.

They did help a lot short term but not in the long run

It was a good help but it being spread out does not help as people including

myself rely on food banks and other help to get by

Comments from those who received only the disability payments:

I found the disability payment fell way short of the help I needed. Disabled

people were completely forgotten in this scheme and the true cost of their

needs was not taken into account. £150 barely touched the sides. In my case,

my condition means I need to keep my joints warm and I need the heating on

more than the average person, I also need to use hot water more frequently. I

also need to charge equipment I use for my disability. This obviously leads to

32 Cost of living support payments

more energy use and higher costs. A single payment of £150 did not take these

extra needs into account, especially when compared to the amount those on

certain benefits received

Gratefully received but a drop in the ocean of the tidal wave of extra costs

It barely touched the sides!

It was gone instantly!!

The £150 Disability Payment did not help with the Cost of Living crisis at all

Didn’t cover one months energy price increase

A drop in the ocean

Nothing it disappeared with the cost of living crisis and never made any

difference at all it was not even noticeable it was that much of a low pathetic

amount

It was far short of the support I needed

[Q4 (a)] How good a job do you think the Government did of making

people aware of these payments?

11) Overall 41.5% of respondents thought the Government had been effective in making

people aware of these payments, while 33.2% thought the Government had been ineffective.

Almost a quarter of respondents (24.8%) were neutral on this question. The breakdown of

responses to this question can be seen in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Percentage breakdown of the number of people who rated the effectiveness of

government messaging about the cost of living payments.

Cost of living support payments 33

[Q4 (b)] How did you find out about the cost of living payments?

Text analysis

12) Respondents were invited to fill in an open text response to answer this question.

As discussed in the free text methodology section earlier in this annex we compiled

collections of key words under the umbrella groups: news, online, government, benefits,

word of mouth and adverts and extrapolated the total number of times these terms were

referred to in the responses. The percentage of respondents who mentioned each of these

umbrella terms in their response is compiled in Figure 5. It appears that the most popular

sources of information for finding out about the cost of living payments were the news

and online.

Figure 5: Percentage breakdown of how people found about the cost of living payments

[Q5] What ongoing support should the Government provide to help people

in receipt of social security with the cost of living?

Text analysis

13) Respondents were invited to fill in an open text response to answer this question.

As discussed in the free text methodology section earlier in this annex we compiled

collections of key words under the umbrella terms: what people wanted support for and,

how support should be delivered, and extrapolated the total number of times these terms

were referred to in the responses.

34 Cost of living support payments

What people wanted support for

14) All of the responses (1,140) were searched for the key terms (or variants of) energy,

heating, gas, electric, food, fuel, water, clothing, bills and utilities. 449 responses included

one or more of these key terms. The percentage breakdown of responses can be seen in

Figure 6. The most popular requests for support were variants on support for energy costs.

Figure 6: Percentage breakdown of what people felt the Government should provide support for

How support should be provided

15) All of the responses (1,140) were searched for the key terms (or variants of) payments,

benefits, money, credit, tax and vouchers. 523 responses included one or more of these key

terms. The percentage breakdown of responses can be seen in the chart which follows.

Cost of living support payments 35

Figure 7: Percentage breakdown of what type of support people felt the Government should

provide

Results for survey branch B (those who did not receive the cost of

living support payments)

[Q2] Why did you not receive cost of living support payments?

16) This question had multiple choice answers of which a respondent could select one.

These were:

• Don’t get relevant qualifying payments at all (389 responses);

• Didn’t get relevant payments during the qualifying period (94 responses); and

• Other: [respondent could write a free text response up to 50 words] (196

responses).

17) The majority of the ‘other’ responses were variants of did not qualify/were not eligible

for the payments, currently living abroad or did not know.

18) The breakdown of responses can be seen in Figure 8.

36 Cost of living support payments

Figure 8: Percentage breakdown of why people did not get support payments

[Q3] What effect did not receiving the support payments have on you?

19) This question was a free text response. There were a very wide range of responses

referencing (among other things) bills and energy, food, rent, pensions, loss of savings,

mental health, family problems, disability and taxes. Given the wide range and variety of

responses, with extremely different phrasing, it was not practical to conduct a key terms

search and analysis of these responses. Instead we compiled a selection of responses which

give an overview of the range of different issues faced by those who did not qualify for the

payments:

I am now in a position where I have a consistent overdraft of £1200 that

I cannot clear. I had to make special arrangements with my gas supplier

because I couldn’t sustain the £400 monthly costs

Using up my savings. Having to sell car so she’ll have to bus it to work. No

holiday this year or ever again.

It’s a big struggle trying to make ends meet

It’s left me going to foodbanks all the time and having to borrow money from

loan people which has put me into debt

It’s a struggle trying to juggle bills and shopping. More anxiety and stress.

Everything is more expensive. My spouse works from home because of personal

issues, and the cost of electricity to heat our home and run a computer all day

every day is astronomical. We also cannot afford to use our car much because

of the cost of petrol.

Intensified fear of, and depression about, the future.

Cost of living support payments 37

Makes life much harder, worry about paying our rent, being able to eat and

pay all other bills

I have had to use savings that were meant for my retirement. What happens

when I retire?

Struggling to live and pay all the bills despite both working full time

We are struggling - living hand to mouth, frightened to put on the heating.

I have to look out for bargains and limit myself to how much I spend when I

go out

I am getting deeper into debt every month. Cannot reduce anymore outgoings

I have been cold trying not to have the heating on. I have changed what I eat

to keep food costs down

It’s meant I’ve had to take on additional paid work meaning I now work 7am9pm 5 days a week. My physical and mental health is suffering.

I had to go to food banks and do without oil

I have had to sell items of jewellery

Made me worse off than those that did get them.

Almost Impossible to Live, Barely SURVIVING !!

Made me ill with stress.

Financially crippling

Made me suicidal

[Q4] What ongoing support do you think the Government should provide

to people to help with the cost of living?

Text analysis

20) This question is the same as question 5 in branch A. Respondents were invited

to fill in an open text response to answer this question. As discussed in the free text

methodology section earlier in this annex we compiled collections of key words under the

umbrella terms: what people wanted support for and, how support should be delivered,

and extrapolated the total number of times these terms were referred to in the responses.

What people want support for

21) All of the responses (753) were searched for the key terms (or variants of) energy,

heating, gas, electric, food, fuel, water, clothing, bills and utilities. 227 responses included

one or more of these key terms. The percentage breakdown of responses can be seen in

Figure 9. As with the responses for those who received the payments the most popular

requests for support were variants on support for energy costs.

38 Cost of living support payments

Figure 9: Percentage breakdown of what people felt the Government should provide support for

How support should be provided

22) All of the responses (753) were searched for the key terms (or variants of) payments,

benefits, money, credit, tax and vouchers. 348 responses included one or more of these key

terms. The percentage breakdown of responses can be seen in figure 10.

Figure 10: Percentage breakdown of what type of support people felt the Government should

provide

Cost of living support payments 39

Annex 2: Lived experience questionnaires

and semi-structured interviews

1) In order to gather the input of adults with learning disabilities into the inquiry on

cost of living support payments, the Select Committee Engagement Team conducted a

distributed dialogue activity, which included a short questionnaire adapted from the

online survey conducted in April 2023. 27 people completed questionnaires across three

organisations (Enable, Opening Doors, and Z2K). In addition, two semi-structured

interviews were carried out in July 2023, one with an adult with a learning disability and

their support worker, and the other with a parent of an adult with a learning disability.

Questionnaire results

Receiving the support payments

2) The majority of participants had received cost of living payments, although several

had not or were unsure whether or not they had:

• 16 participants (59%) responded that they had received cost of living support

payments;

• six participants (22%) said they had not received the payments; and

• five participants (19%) said that they didn’t know.

Of those participants who did receive cost of living payments, five were unsure which

payments they received, and several reported the benefits they received (i.e. PIP, income

support) rather than the cost of living payments themselves.

3) Responses demonstrated a lack of awareness of the automatic nature of the scheme,

in that those eligible for certain benefits would automatically receive cost of living support

payments. For example, one participant said that “advertising did not reach me”, while

another said: “The Government didn’t do a good job of informing people how to claim the

payments and should have written to every household or person”.

4) Several people said that they did not know why they did not receive support, while

others said they “did not even know about it”. Responses also raised the issue of the

accessibility of the scheme to those with learning disabilities, with a participant stating

that “letters are too complex” and “I [have] trouble reading”.

Impact of receiving support payments

5) Those who received support payments reported that they helped them with the

following costs:

• Gas and electricity (n=8);

• Food (n=4);

• Household bills (n=4);

40 Cost of living support payments

• Phone bill (n=2);

• College supplies (n=1);

• Gym (n=1); and

• Bedroom tax (n=1).

6) While most respondents said that the payments helped, some emphasised that they

were still unable to meet their costs fully: “[the payments] supported me with food and

energy costs, however the amount received was nowhere near enough with the cost of

energy and food prices increasing in shops”.

7) A participant mentioned that the disability cost of living payment did not enable

them to meet their costs: “It did not help with all of the different costs (especially hot

water and heating) because of my different medical conditions e.g. I suffer more intense

pain due to the cold weather, I need to turn my heating and hot water on more frequently,

also because of bowel and bladder conditions, I need to wash clothing and to shower more

frequently.” They also mentioned that “the cost of food was extremely expensive”.

Impact of not receiving support payments

8) Respondents who did not access the support payments shared details of how this

affected them:

• “I have less money for food”;

• “I cannot buy food”;

• “I live on £10 a week”; and

• “The rising cost of food and energy meant a carefully balanced scheme was

thrown out of whack. Needs no longer meet. Borrowing from friends became

regular and I lost friends. I lay awake at night thinking what to go without to

come within budget, but they are essentials so the stress of having to do the

impossible was tough. More and more medicines and services are no longer

covered by NHS and have to be done privately. So taking care of my complex

blood/skin condition became even harder.”

Recommendations for how the Government can help with the cost of living

9) Respondents made a range of recommendations of other ways that the Government

could help with the cost of living:

• “Vouchers to buy things I need: clothes, food, toiletries, bedding, radio, hoover,

electricity, gas, council tax, internet”;

• “Emergency fund if something happens”;

• “Cut price of bills”;

• “Reduce item prices in shops and add more payments to assist us”;

Cost of living support payments 41

• “Help with the food shop as some do skip meals because their payment goes

towards rent and bills”;

• “Stop the bedroom tax, it’s causing bad anxiety”; and

• “Treat us as human beings, not categories of faceless numbers. We all have

different needs. Those of us who live alone and have little opportunity to find out

about schemes lose out. It would be helpful if communication is improved and

those of us who ought to get a benefit get it instead of having to jump through

hoops.”

Semi-structured interviews: key themes

10) Both interview participants (or those they represented) had received both the

disability payment and the low-income payments.

Accessibility

11) Participants expressed the view that the support payments scheme was not

communicated in a way that was accessible for adults with learning disabilities. While the

automatic nature of the scheme was appreciated, participants felt that the Government

should have made use of accessible communication tools such as EasyRead explainers, as

well as providing further information that could help adults with learning disabilities to

manage the payments.

“I think first of all, they need to make their written letters and information

far simpler and not in a frightening thing because they don’t always

understand. [My son] sometimes gets things from Mencap which are

pictorial and they are very good. He goes to respite and respite sends out

information… all the things they write, by the side they’ve got the picture

to explain these things - and the Government don’t do that. They send these

long letters, you know, 4 pages long, all written. And obviously [my son]

can’t understand it at all. He doesn’t even know what it’s all about. And I

know a lot of his friends, the same as well.” (Participant B)

“ … with the cost of living payments, we found it extremely difficult to

try and explain how and when people are going to get it because it was

very unclear when people were going to get it. So even for us to translate it

into EasyRead for people to understand, it was really difficult. Don’t get me

wrong, it’s lovely what’s been done, but we also have some members who

don’t even access their bank account. And, you know, I even spoke to a

member yesterday about it and I said, “Oh, did you receive it?” He said he’s

got no idea and that’s difficult.” (Support worker)

“They might - just because they don’t really understand it’s for a certain

length of time - they might say, “Oh I can buy this with it”, and they go out

and buy something they don’t really need with it instead of using it for the

things that they do need.” (Participant B)

“I was just told it’ll be paid out from this particular date to this particular

date and that just wasn’t helpful. You need to know when you’re getting that

42 Cost of living support payments

so you can pay bills and things like that, and it was just frustrating when

you were hearing and seeing other people getting it, but you weren’t, and

you’re just there waiting for it.” (Participant A)

Payment amounts

12) Participants said that even with the cost of living payments it was proving difficult

to make ends meet, and that adults with learning disabilities were having to rely on

other sources of financial support, including borrowing from friends, in order to buy the

essentials:

“When I think about [my son], what his needs are, he needs a lot more

money than what he actually gets. So obviously because we are both retired,

we pay for it, I pay for all of [my son’s] clothes and things like that out of my

money. So, it is hard.” (Participant B)

“Now and then, there’s a friend of mine - he doesn’t live far - that occasionally

I’ve had to ask if I can borrow £20 so I can go and get myself some food and

he’s always helped me out. And I’ve paid him back as soon as I’ve got paid.

Before the cost-of-living crisis, it might have been once in a blue moon, but

now it’s more often.” (Participant A)

Particular needs of those living independently

13) Participants in both interviews emphasised that adults with learning disabilities

who live independently (rather than in residential care or with family) were especially

vulnerable in light of the rising cost of living.

14) Participants explained how a lack of social services support was making people in

this group more vulnerable and less able to cope with the rising cost of living, as they

found it harder to manage their money, claim support they were entitled to, and access

community resources such as food banks independently.

“I would say it’s much harder for [people] who live independently in their

own flats, and some of those have been really struggling and particularly

- there’s about three of them - one phoned me up and said he didn’t have

enough money to pay his bills for the month and didn’t know what to do

because he couldn’t get any food. He went to the food bank. And the thing

is, he hasn’t got a social worker because he was released from that, but he

didn’t know how to claim benefits [for] extra things and I had to take him

to the council and they helped him to claim for some extra money. But

he couldn’t even afford to have his Wi-Fi. He had to cancel it because he

couldn’t afford it, and that was his only means of contacting people. It’s very

difficult for some of them.” (Participant B)

“I see a lot of people who have been under the umbrella of social services

in the last five years. They no longer are. They don’t have a named social

worker. Nobody checks up on these people to see that they’re OK or phones

them to say, “Are you alright? Is there anything you’re struggling with? Are

Cost of living support payments 43

you managing financially? Are you able to get out and get your things?”

Nobody does that anymore, and that’s where I think it’s all gone haywire.”

(Participant B)

“[Community fridges] are generally open in the evenings because they

rely on donations from shops and then some people aren’t able to access

those because they don’t have the support to take them because their care

is generally in the day. So I think that would be a concern if the money was

to stop, that there would be more financial hardship. I think there’s a lot of

pressure anyway on the food banks at the moment but people not being able

to access the community fridges that are only open in the evenings, 6 till 8,

if they don’t have support to take them.” (Support worker)

15) Participants also highlighted that it was more difficult for adults with learning

disabilities to economise safely in the face of rising costs, or deal with the knock-on effects

of economising measures such as limiting the use of heating:

“Yes, you have to compromise. And we can compromise, but other people

can’t compromise. They don’t know how to. You see what I mean? They

don’t know how to look in the shop to find out which is the more economical

thing to get or how to use less power. They don’t understand. I mean some

of them sometimes don’t even understand when they’re feeling really cold.

They just don’t have that wherewithal, and so it becomes very difficult.”

(Participant B)

“We’ve heard from a lot of members because they were short and on key

meters for the gas and electric, they weren’t putting their heating on all the

time in the winter and then their homes had got mould in them. And so

they’re now tackling with mould issues… And the councils don’t want to

help with that. Someone without a learning disability maybe could sort out

an issue of mould by maybe treating it and repainting it. But someone with

a learning disability and autism, if they don’t have support, may be unable

to do that so freely and we’ve found that was an issue.” (Support worker)

16) One participant suggested that support payments should take into account whether

someone is living independently or in residential care or with family:

“Participant A would pay everything on his own. So even though he’s had

these pay-outs, he’s still struggling with money most weeks because of the

increase of everything. But then there are some people who are in residential

and they’ve received that money or they’re living at home with their parents

and they receive their money and it’s not so difficult for them to eat every

day. That was quite confusing for some people because across the line it’s

the same amount of money.” (Support worker)

Social isolation

17) One participant spoke about adults with learning disabilities being at increased risk

of social isolation and how this impacts them, from affecting their wellbeing to putting

them at greater risk of death:

44 Cost of living support payments

“Some of [my son’s] friends, they might go to disability football, but they

don’t go to Mencap or they don’t go to the disability forum group because

they don’t feel - maybe they don’t want to get that involved with people

or they can’t because for many different reasons they don’t go to groups.

Sometimes they can’t even afford it. I know that a young girl… there was a

Mencap party and she couldn’t even afford to get there to the party in the

summer this year, a few weeks ago, she said, because there was no buses

where she lives and she said, “I can’t come”, and she was really upset about

it.” (Participant B)

“One really vital thing is in the last few years there’s been quite a lot of

people that have died in Mencap and I’m a bit concerned that… they both

lived alone. They have carers in the day, but at night they live alone in the

flat and one of them, their carer came in and found him dead in his bed

and he had tried to phone a friend, but the friend switches his phone off at

night when he goes to sleep, and I don’t think that some people realise about

dialling 111 and how difficult it is for people who have learning difficulties

to speak to someone, or if they try to phone their surgery, it’s all automated,

you don’t speak with anyone, and I think at Mencap they’ve tried to explain

to people that if they are really ill at night, they must make sure they speak

to a human being.” (Participant B)

Recommendations for how the Government could help with the cost of

living

18) Participants made a number of recommendations for the Government on clearer and

more accessible communication, including:

• “If they could write something simple like if you’re getting PIPs, they could say

in a pictorial way, “We’re going to give PIP people this amount of money and

that’s going to help you to buy your food”, and just write a few things like, “This

is going to help you to buy your food, help to pay your heating and electricity

and gas”. Just very simply, and so they can read that and say, “Oh yes, that might

help my electricity and gas, that might help me be able to go to Aldi’s or Lidl or

wherever they get their food from and then they will think about that and use it

that way.” (Participant B)

• “When we get the one-off payments, it should say somewhere in the document

or letter they say, “This is for … ” and you just itemise a few things: “This will

help you get food. Pay your bills, pay your phone bill. Help you get the bus.”

(Participant B)

• DWP should communicate more clearly what disabled people are entitled

to more generally, as this could help with the cost of living. One participant

mentioned that the DWP could be more explicit about entitlement to free dental

care and bus passes, for example.

• Price controls on energy: “I was wondering if maybe what would be helpful

would be if Rishi told energy providers to stop rising their prices” (Participant

A)

Cost of living support payments 45

• Vouchers: “I’m wondering about vouchers or something, to the supermarkets or

to petrol stations, that would help them as well.” (Participant A)

• Splitting payments into smaller chunks to help people with learning disabilities

to manage their money: “Because we did find some members, because it was

quite a lot of money in one lump, some members said, “Oh, I can get my new TV

with that”, and sort of forgetting the fact it was to help them through with things

that have risen.” (Support worker)

46 Cost of living support payments

Conclusions and recommendations

Access to the cost of living support payments

1. We welcome the automated nature of the payment system, which enabled the swift

issue of cash support to many of those most in need. However, we recognise that it

is limited in its ability to target payments and therefore meet the additional needs of

certain groups. (Paragraph 17)

2. We are concerned by the cliff edge nature of the cost of living payments which

creates a fundamentally unfair income gap where a person is financially penalised

for earning just over the qualifying threshold, being in receipt of a sanction or not

receiving an eligible payment during the qualifying period. For example, a person

earning just £5 over the qualifying threshold would lose nearly £300 if they are

ineligible for a cost of living payment and would be significantly worse off than

someone just under the threshold. (Paragraph 25)

3. People who receive Universal Credit and are paid on a non-monthly basis, even if

their earnings follow a consistent pattern, can fail to meet the eligibility criteria in a

qualifying period. We recognise that the Government has taken steps to mitigate the

risk of an individual missing more than one cost of living payment if they are paid

fortnightly or weekly. This mitigation is not enough given a recipient of Universal

Credit on such a pattern would still miss one of the cost of living payments and a

considerable amount of support. Anyone who misses a cost of living payment due

to receiving regular earnings on a non-monthly basis should be issued the missed

payment in the mop-up system. (Paragraph 26)

4. The Government should change the eligibility for the final cost of living payment in

2023/24 and for any possible future payments so that Universal Credit (UC) claimants

who receive a nil UC award in the qualifying period, but received a payment in the

previous and subsequent assessment period, qualify for a cost of living payment. This

could be incorporated into the mop-up payment system. (Paragraph 27)

5. We are concerned that support payments do not reach all low-income households in

receipt of benefits as some households only receive housing benefit. The Government

should consider adding Housing Benefit as a qualifying benefit for future cost of living

support payments and set out the practicalities of doing so. (Paragraph 31)

6. We are concerned that some people with no recourse to public funds could be denied

Household Support Fund (HSF) support from local authorities, despite potentially

being eligible for such support, due to a lack of clarity in the guidance. We are also

concerned that some people with no recourse to public funds will not be able to

access support through the HSF because there are no specific powers or duties

which can be used to enable their access to funding. The Government should clarify

in the Household Support Fund guidance the circumstances when a local authority

can use the Household Support Fund to assist those with no recourse to public funds.

We certainly hope this would explicitly include families with children who otherwise

meet HSF’s eligibility criteria. (Paragraph 40)

Cost of living support payments 47

7. The Household Support Fund has enabled the provision of support to vulnerable

households who are not eligible for the cost of living support payments or for whom

the payments are not sufficient. However, we are concerned by the uneven nature

of support offered by the Household Support Fund which can be a postcode lottery

dependent on the local authority in which a person lives. A lack of awareness of the

fund seems to have resulted in those eligible, and in need, not applying for support.

As a result of this we reiterate our concern, raised in our cost of living report in

2022, that a question remains as to whether or not the fund is supporting the most

vulnerable households effectively. (Paragraph 41)

8. If the Government continues to issue cost of living support payments in the next

financial year, it should maintain the Household Support Fund as it is an important

safety net for those ineligible for these payments and other means tested benefits. In

doing so, ahead of the next financial year, the Government should better communicate

and advertise the fund to make sure that people are aware of its existence. The

accessibility of the application process should be improved to enable people who may

be disabled, do not speak English, do not have access to the internet, or may struggle

to access support during working hours, to apply. (Paragraph 42)

The impact of the cost of living support payments

9. The cost of living payments have had an important impact and boosted the finances

of low-income households. However, one-off 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. The Government has stated it

will conduct an evaluation of the cost of living payments next year. The Government

should bring forward its evaluation of the cost of living support payments so that

preliminary analysis can be fed into decisions on possible future payments ahead of

the next financial year. The evaluation should be published before the start of financial

year 2024/25. (Paragraph 61)

10. While the UK support has been relatively generous compared to other countries,

other countries have issued specific support for families and children, which the

UK Government has not. Given the flat rate nature of the cost of living payments, the

Government should conduct an analysis of the value of the support received by lowincome families with children compared to the support received by single people and

couples. Further, future cost of living support payments should take account of family

size. (Paragraph 62)

11. We commend the Government’s efforts to promote Pension Credit to those entitled

to it, though there is still more to do to increase take-up as we remarked on in our

July 2022 Cost of Living report. We remain concerned that there are low-income

pensioner households who may just miss out on Pension Credit and as a result are

significantly worse off compared to those who receive it and its passported benefits,

including cost of living payments. The Government should devise and implement a

policy to address this unfairness. (Paragraph 67)

12. The cost of living payments do not provide a suitable level of support for vulnerable

groups who are impacted to a greater extent by the cost of living crisis, such as

those with disabilities, and do not cover the additional costs these people face.

48 Cost of living support payments

This is especially true if those who receive the £150 cost of living payment are not

entitled to any of the other cost of living payments. We have not seen an adequate

explanation for how £150 was determined as a suitable bridging payment for those

with disabilities. The Government should set out a detailed reasoning as to why a

payment of this size was considered correct. (Paragraph 74)

13. Should there be future cost of living payments, or similar ad hoc support, the

Government should increase the financial support for those with disabilities in

proportion to the additional costs that they incur. (Paragraph 75)

14. It is clear that an uplift of regular working age benefits received would be more

beneficial than ad-hoc cost of living support payments as it would better enable

households to budget and reduce the chance of a recipient losing out on a major

one-off payment. The Government have explained it is not possible to quickly

uprate legacy benefits, however it can quickly uprate Universal Credit. We also note

this problem will disappear once the transition to Universal Credit is complete.

The Government has explained it is not possible to quickly uprate legacy benefits,

however it can quickly uprate Universal Credit. We also note this problem will

disappear once the transition to Universal Credit is complete. The Government

should clarify the legal position as to whether it can uprate Universal Credit and only

maintain the one-off payment system for those on legacy benefits. If this can be done,

and should further cost of living payments be required next year or in the future, the

Government should uprate Universal Credit and only maintain the one-off payment

system for those on legacy benefits. (Paragraph 83)

15. We recognise that the Government is concerned that publishing exact payment

windows could encourage fraud and disincentivise people from taking work

opportunities. However, the irregular nature of these payments, along with the

uncertainty of when they will be received, continues to make household budgeting

a challenge. If the Government decides to issue further cost of living payments in the

next financial year, it should announce the payment dates (but not the qualifying

period) in advance. This would improve the ability of households to budget whilst still

mitigating the risk of fraud and risks to work incentives. (Paragraph 87)

Cost of living support payments 49

Formal minutes

Wednesday 8 November 2023

Members present

Sir Stephen Timms, in the Chair

Shaun Bailey

Siobhan Baillie

David Linden

Nigel Mills

Selaine Saxby

Sir Desmond Swayne

Cost of living support payments

Draft Report (Cost of living support payments), proposed by the Chair, brought up and

read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraphs 1 to 88 read and agreed to.

Annexes and Summary agreed to.

Resolved, That the Report be the First Report of the Committee to the House.

Ordered, That the Chair make the Report to the House.

Ordered, That embargoed copies of the Report be made available (Standing Order No.

134).

Adjournment

Adjourned till Wednesday 15 November 2023 at 9.15 am

50 Cost of living support payments

Witnesses

The following witnesses gave evidence. Transcripts can be viewed on the inquiry publications

page of the Committee’s website.

Wednesday 07 June 2023

Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research and Impact, The Trussell Trust; Maddy

Rose, Policy Specialist, Royal Mencap Society; Sally West, Policy Manager, Age

UK; Morgan Wild, Head of Policy, Citizens Advice Q1–32

Fran Bennett, Associate Fellow, University of Oxford; Richard Hunt, Head of

Hospitality, Catering and Country Parks, Leicestershire County Council; Maxwell

Marlow, Director of Research, Adam Smith Institute Q33–58

Wednesday 05 July 2023

Dr Miroslav Štefánik, Director, Institute of Economic Research Slovak Academy

of Sciences; Dr Jennifer Robson, Program Director and Associate Professor of

Political Management, Kroeger College, Carleton University (Canada); Professor

Thomas Gerlinger, Faculty of Health Sciences, Bielefeld University (Germany) Q59–71

Mims Davies MP, Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression,

Department for Work and Pensions; Katy Roberts, Deputy Director, Poverty

Strategy, Department for Work and Pensions; Neil Couling, Director General,

Change and Resilience Group, Department for Work and Pensions; Nagesh

Reddy, Portfolio Director, Change and Resilience Group, Department for Work

and Pensions Q72–114

Cost of living support payments 51

Published written evidence

The following written evidence was received and can be viewed on the inquiry publications

page of the Committee’s website.

CLP numbers are generated by the evidence processing system and so may not be complete.

1 Age UK (CLP0017)

2 Andersen, Dr Kate (Research Associate, University of York); Reeves, Professor Aaron

(Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Oxford); Patrick, Dr Ruth

(Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, University of York); and Stewart, Dr Kitty (Associate

Professor of Social Policy, London School of Economics) (CLP0023)

3 Anonymised (CLP0012)

4 Anonymised (CLP0058)

5 Anonymised (CLP0032)

6 Anonymised (CLP0018)

7 Anonymised (CLP0005)

8 Anonymised (CLP0004)

9 Anonymised (CLP0019)

10 Anonymised (CLP0016)

11 Anonymised (CLP0008)

12 Barnardo’s (CLP0048)

13 Blackpool Council (CLP0053)

14 Bradford Council (CLP0060)

15 Bright Blue (CLP0030)

16 Brighton & Hove City Council (CLP0035)

17 Burmantofts Community Projects (CLP0045)

18 Care & Repair Cymru (CLP0011)

19 Child Poverty Action Group; and Changing Realities (CLP0028)

20 Christians against Poverty (CLP0034)

21 Citizens Advice Newcastle (CLP0009)

22 Community Housing Cymru (CLP0031)

23 Cornwall Independent Poverty Forum (CLP0040)

24 Department for Work and Pensions (CLP0033)

25 Entitledto (CLP0057)

26 Equity (CLP0059)

27 Feeding Britain (CLP0006)

28 Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) (CLP0020)

29 Griffiths, Dr Rita (Research Fellow, University of Bath) (CLP0014)

30 Hodson, Mr Ed (Independent Community Researcher, Freelance) (CLP0025)

31 In Kind Direct (CLP0027)

52 Cost of living support payments

32 Independent Age (CLP0029)

33 Law Centre NI (CLP0054)

34 Leicestershire County Council (CLP0021)

35 Leonard Cheshire (CLP0044)

36 London Borough of Southwark (Southwark Council) (CLP0047)

37 Melin Homes Ltd (CLP0010)

38 Mental Health Foundation (CLP0046)

39 Mitton, Dr Lavinia (Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Kent) (CLP0052)

40 Organise (CLP0007), (CLP0043)

41 Parkinson’s UK (CLP0022)

42 Policy in Practice (CLP0055)

43 Public Law Project (CLP0056)

44 Refuge (CLP0038)

45 Royal Mencap Society (CLP0037)

46 Save the Children (CLP0049)

47 Scope (CLP0061)

48 Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Justice Committee (CLP0042)

49 Sense (CLP0050)

50 Southampton Anti-Poverty Forum; SCRATCH; and Southampton City Mission

(CLP0024)

51 Southampton City Council (CLP0041)

52 Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming (CLP0039)

53 The Trussell Trust (CLP0036)

54 the3million (CLP0026)

Cost of living support payments 53

List of Reports from the Committee

during the current Parliament

All publications from the Committee are available on the publications page of the

Committee’s website.

Session 2022–23

Number Title Reference

1st The appointment of Dominic Harris as the Pensions

Ombudsman and the Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman

HC 465

2nd The cost of living HC 129

3rd Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension

freedoms: Saving for later life

HC 126

4th Universal Credit and childcare costs HC 127

5th Health assessments for benefits HC 128

6th Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service HC 272

7th Defined benefit pensions with Liability Driven Investments HC 826

8th Plan for Jobs and employment support HC 600

1st Special Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds:

Government Response

HC 328

2nd

Special

The Health and Safety Executive’s approach to asbestos

management: Government Response to the Committee’s

Sixth Report of Session 2021–22

HC 633

3rd

Special

The cost of living: Government Response to the Committee’s

Second Report of Session 2022–23

HC 671

4th

Special

Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension

freedoms: Saving for later life: Government, Financial

Conduct Authority and Money and Pensions Service

Responses to the Committee’s Third Report of Session

2022–23

HC 1057

5th

Special

Universal Credit and childcare costs: Government Response

to the Committee’s Fourth Report of Session 2022–23

HC 1266

6th

Special

Health assessments for benefits: Government response to

Committee’s Fifth Report of Session 2022–23

HC 1558

7th

Special

Children in poverty: Child Maintenance Service: Government

Response to the Committee’s Sixth Report

HC 1675

8th

Special

Plan for Jobs and employment support: Government

Response to the Committee’s Eighth Report

HC 1867

Session 2021–22

Number Title Reference

1st DWP’s preparations for changes in the world of work HC 216

54 Cost of living support payments

Number Title Reference

2nd Disability employment gap HC 189

3rd Children in poverty: Measurement and targets HC 188

4th Pension stewardship and COP26 HC 238

5th Protecting pension savers—five years on from the Pension

Freedoms: Accessing pension savings

HC 237

6th The Health and Safety Executive’s approach to asbestos

management

HC 560

7th Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds HC 603

Session 2019–21

Number Title Reference

1st DWP’s response to the coronavirus outbreak HC 178

2nd The appointment of Dr Stephen Brien as the Chair of the

Social Security Advisory Committee

HC 733

3rd Universal Credit: the wait for a first payment HC 204

4th The temporary increase in Universal Credit and Working Tax

Credit

HC 1193

5th Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension

freedoms: Pension scams

HC 648

6th The appointment of Sarah Smart as Chair of the Pensions

Regulator

HC 1358

-----------------------------------------------------------------

-> https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment

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HomeWelfareBenefits entitlement

Guidance

Cost of Living Payments 2023 to 2024

EnglishCymraeg

Guidance on getting extra payments to help with the cost of living if you’re entitled to certain benefits or tax credits.

From:

Department for Work and Pensions

Published

13 March 2023

Last updated

13 December 2023 — See all updates

Get emails about this page

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Guidance for Northern Ireland

Contents

Low income benefits and tax credits Cost of Living Payment eligibility

Payment dates for low income benefits and tax credits Cost of Living Payment

Disability Cost of Living Payment eligibility

Payment dates for the Disability Cost of Living Payment

Find out how to report a missing Cost of Living Payment

Pensioner Cost of Living Payment

2022 Cost of Living Payments

Other help

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This page will be updated when more information is available. Check back for updates or sign up for email alerts.

You may be able to get up to 5 payments to help with the cost of living if you’re getting certain benefits or tax credits.

You do not need to apply. If you’re eligible, you’ll be paid automatically in the same way you usually get your benefit or tax credits. This includes if you’re found to be eligible at a later date.

If you have had a message asking you to apply or contact someone about the payment, this might be a scam.

These payments are not taxable and will not affect the benefits or tax credits you get.

Low income benefits and tax credits Cost of Living Payment eligibility

You may be entitled to up to 3 Cost of Living Payments of £301, £300 and £299 if you get any of the following benefits or tax credits on certain dates:

income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)

income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

Income Support

Pension Credit

Universal Credit

Child Tax Credit

Working Tax Credit

The payment will be made separately from your benefit payments.

You will not get a payment if you are only getting New Style ESA, contributory ESA, or New Style JSA.

If you have a joint claim on the qualifying dates, a single payment of £301, £300 and £299 will be sent using the same payment method used between these dates, if you’re eligible.

£299 Cost of Living Payment eligibility

Universal Credit

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £299 if you were 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 13 November 2023 to 12 December 2023.

Income-based JSA, income-based ESA, Income Support and Pension Credit

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £299 if you were 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 13 November 2023 to 12 December 2023.

You are also eligible if you are entitled to one of these benefits for any day during this period but you do not receive a benefit payment because your entitlement is between 1 penny and 9 pence.

Tax credits

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £299 if you received a payment of tax credits for any day in the period 13 November 2023 to 12 December 2023, or if you later receive a payment for any day in that period.

£300 Cost of Living Payment eligibility

Universal Credit

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £300 if you were 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 18 August 2023 to 17 September 2023.

Income-based JSA, income-based ESA, Income Support and Pension Credit

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £300 if you were 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 18 August 2023 to 17 September 2023.

You are also eligible if you are entitled to one of these benefits for any day during this period but you do not receive a benefit payment because your entitlement is between 1 penny and 9 pence.

Tax credits

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £300 if you received a payment of tax credits for any day in the period 18 August 2023 to 17 September 2023, or if you later receive a payment for any day in that period.

£301 Cost of Living Payment eligibility

Universal Credit

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £301 if you were 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 26 January 2023 to 25 February 2023.

Income-based JSA, income-based ESA, Income Support and Pension Credit

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £301 if you were 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 26 January 2023 to 25 February 2023.

You are also eligible if you are entitled to one of these benefits for any day during this period but you do not receive a benefit payment because your entitlement is between 1 penny and 9 pence.

Tax credits

You are eligible for the Cost of Living Payment of £301 if you received a payment of tax credits for any day in the period 26 January 2023 to 25 February 2023, or if you later receive a payment for any day in that period.

When you will not be eligible: DWP benefits

You will not be eligible for the Cost of Living Payment if your benefit is reduced to £0 for the qualifying period. This is sometimes called a ‘nil award’.

Reasons your benefit may be reduced to £0 include:

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

You may still be eligible for a Cost of Living Payment if your benefit is reduced to £0 and one of the following applies:

money was taken off your benefit for other reasons, such as payments of rent to your landlord or for money that you owe

you had a hardship payment because you could not pay for rent, heating, food or hygiene needs

When you will not be eligible: tax credits

You will not be eligible for the Cost of Living Payment if your tax credits entitlement for the tax year is below £26.

Payment dates for low income benefits and tax credits Cost of Living Payment

Amount of payment Your benefit or tax credits Payment dates

£301 Universal Credit

Income-based JSA

Income-based ESA

Income Support

Pension Credit Between 25 April and 17 May 2023 for most people

£301 Tax credits and no other low income benefit Between 2 May and 9 May 2023 for most people

£300 Universal Credit

Income-based JSA

Income-based ESA

Income Support

Pension Credit Between 31 October and 19 November 2023 for most people

£300 Tax credits and no other low income benefit Between 10 November and 19 November 2023 for most people

£299 Universal Credit

Income-based JSA

Income-based ESA

Income Support

Pension Credit Between 6 February and 22 February 2024 for most people

£299 Tax credits and no other low income benefit Between 16 February and 22 February 2024 for most people

If you’re getting both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit, you will receive a Cost of Living Payment for Child Tax Credit only, which will be paid by HMRC.

If you’re getting tax credits from HMRC and a low income benefit from DWP, you cannot get a Cost of Living Payment from both HMRC and DWP. You will usually be paid by DWP only.

Your payment might come later, for example if you’re awarded a qualifying benefit at a later date or you change the account your benefit or tax credits are paid into. You will still be paid the Cost of Living Payment automatically.

If you have received a Cost of Living Payment, but we later find that you were not eligible for it, you may have to pay it back.

This guidance will be updated with the payment dates before each payment starts.

Disability Cost of Living Payment eligibility

You may be entitled to a Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 if you’re getting any of any of the following benefits:

Attendance Allowance

Constant Attendance Allowance

Disability Living Allowance for adults

Disability Living Allowance for children

Personal Independence Payment

Adult Disability Payment (in Scotland)

Child Disability Payment (in Scotland)

Armed Forces Independence Payment

War Pension Mobility Supplement

You must have received a payment (or later receive a payment) of one of these benefits for 1 April 2023 to get the Disability Cost of Living Payment.

If you were getting a qualifying benefit from the Ministry of Defence and a qualifying benefit from DWP, you will get a Disability Cost of Living Payment from DWP only.

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.

Guidance on the Disability Cost of Living Payment is also available in easy read format. Disability Cost of Living Payment easy read (PDF, 2.45 MB, 8 pages)

Payment dates for the Disability Cost of Living Payment

Most people were paid the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment automatically between 20 June 2023 and 4 July 2023.

Payments were made to people who were getting a qualifying disability benefit from DWP before payments to people who were getting a qualifying benefit from the Ministry of Defence.

Your payment might come later, for example if you’re awarded a qualifying benefit at a later date or you change the account your benefit is paid into. You will still be paid the Cost of Living Payment automatically.

Find out how to report a missing Cost of Living Payment

Most people should have received their £301 and £300 Cost of Living Payments and £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment for 2023.

Find out how to report a missing Cost of Living Payment, if you think you should have had one of the following payments, but you cannot see it in your bank, building society or credit union account:

£301 paid between 25 April 2023 and 17 May 2023 for most people

£300 paid between 31 October and 19 November 2023 for most people

£150 Disability Cost of Living Payment paid between 20 June 2023 and 4 July 2023 for most people

The £299 Cost of Living Payment for a low income benefit will be paid between 6 February and 22 February 2024 for most people. You will be able to report it missing from 23 February 2024.

Pensioner Cost of Living Payment

If you’re entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2023 to 2024, you will get an extra £150 or £300 paid with your normal payment from November 2023.

The full amount of Winter Fuel Payment (including the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment) you will get for winter 2023 to 2024 depends on when you were born and your circumstances during the qualifying dates.

You can get a Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2023 to 2024 if you were born before 25 September 1957.

You will be sent a letter in October or November telling you how much Winter Fuel Payment you’ll get if you’re eligible.

2022 Cost of Living Payments

This guidance is about Cost of Living Payments being made in 2023 and 2024. You can read about the Cost of Living Payments in 2022 in separate guidance.

Other help

Find out what other benefits and financial support you might be able to get to help with your living costs.

Use an independent benefits calculator to find out what benefits you could get.

You may be able to get other kinds of support, including:

help from the Household Support Fund from your local council in England

the Discretionary Assistance Fund in Wales

a Crisis Grant or Community Care Grant in Scotland

Discretionary Support or a Short-term Benefit Advance in Northern Ireland

Published 13 March 2023

Last updated 13 December 2023 + show all updates

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