You will qualify for this payment if you are getting certain benefits or tax credits. You do not need to apply; this gets paid automatically.
If you are eligible, you will be paid automatically in the same way you usually get your benefit or tax credits. This includes if you are found to be eligible for a Cost of Living Payment or a Disability Cost of Living Payment at a later date.
You could get up to three different types of payment depending on your circumstances on a particular date or during a particular period:
- Cost of Living Payment if you get a qualifying low-income benefit or tax credits
- Disability Cost of Living Payment if you get a qualifying disability benefit
- Pensioner Cost of Living Payment, if you get the Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2022 to 2023
These payments are not taxable and will not affect the benefits or tax credits you get.
You can find out more details about the above payments here.
Low-income benefits and tax credits
You may get a payment of £650 paid in two lump sums of £326 and £324 if you get payments of any of the following:
- Universal Credit
- income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Income Support
- Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Working Tax Credit
To find out more about this visit Gov.uk
Additional cost of living help
There is also further support for households as we head into winter. Some households who didn’t qualify for the Government’s Council Tax Rebate Grant will receive letters this week on how they can claim the money.
Under the main Government scheme, households in Council Tax bands A-D received £150 to help households with the increased cost of energy bills. West Suffolk Council administered the scheme locally, working with Anglia Revenues Partnership to pay more than £9 million of the grant to over 62,000 eligible households.
Now West Suffolk Council is using some of the £270,300 over which it holds discretion, to target support to households in Council Tax bands E-H who get a reduction to their council tax due to income or due to a disability but who were not eligible under the main Government scheme.
You can find out more about this here.
If you are not living within West Suffolk, more information about discretionary payments from other councils can be found here.
We have put together some useful resources to help you find the support you need.
Remember. we are here to help, if you would like to talk to a member of our team, call 0300 3300 900 choosing options 2, 1 and 2.
