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.
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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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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
• 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.
• 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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>
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
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.
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
“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
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
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
the public to inform us of their lived experiences of the cost of living support payments
and whether or not they received them.
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
payments?
payments?
receive (tick all that apply):
A. Low-income payments
B. Disability payments
C. Pensioner payments
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].
living payments help offset the costs you
were facing?
[Free text response]
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.
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]
Government provide to help people in
receipt of social security with the cost of
living?
[Free text response]
Cost of living support payments 27
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
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.
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
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?
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?
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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?
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).
for the payments, currently living abroad or did not know.
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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”.
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
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).
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”.
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
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
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
disability payment and the low-income payments.
Accessibility
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
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
who live independently (rather than in residential care or with family) were especially
vulnerable in light of the rising cost of living.
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
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)
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)
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
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
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
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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)
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
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)
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)
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)
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)
Government should increase the financial support for those with disabilities in
proportion to the additional costs that they incur. (Paragraph 75)
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)
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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