DWP giving less disabled people cost of living payments this time

The Canary can reveal that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will deny over 20,000 more chronically ill and disabled claimants November’s cost of living payments than it did in July. It comes as the DWP has already warned people not to expect the £324 immediately. Overall, around one million benefit claimants will not get the payment.

DWP cost of living payments

As the Liverpool Echo reported, the DWP will be issuing the second cost of living payments between 8-23 November. People claiming the following benefits should get it:

Universal Credit
Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Income Support
Pension Credit

If you claim Tax Credits, the DWP will only give it to you now if you also claim one of the benefits listed above. If you don’t, HMRC will pay you the £324 between November 23-30. However, like the first one in July, not everyone who claims social security will get the cost of living payments.

1.5 million missed out who claim benefits

As the Canary previously reported, the DWP did not give July’s £326 payment to a lot of claimants. This included:

433,000 Housing Benefit claimants
523,000 Carer’s Allowance claimants
568,000 PIP/DLA claimants

It was not possible to work out the number of non-income-based ESA/JSA claimants not entitled to the payment as the DWP doesn’t make the figures publicly available. So, overall, around 1.5 million social security claimants were not be entitled to July’s cost of living payments.

Now, the Canary has crunched the numbers again for PIP/DLA claimants, looking at November’s payment.

Disabled people: penalised once more

We’ve found that over 20,000 less chronically ill and disabled PIP/DLA are entitled to the second cost of living payments. This is because the number of people claiming just the two benefits only has gone up – from 568,889 to 590,435. These claimants won’t get the payments because they don’t claim any other benefit – like Universal Credit.

Meanwhile, the number of Housing Benefit claimants who won’t be getting the cost of living payments has gone down – from 433,015 to 405,236. Now, this may mean that the DWP will give the payment to more people – but only if these people have moved to another qualifying benefit, again like Universal Credit. However, that is still over 400,000 people who the DWP says are poor enough to need support with rent – but not poor enough for anything else.

Beyond belief

As the Canary previously reported, the DWP had not done an impact assessment at the time of rolling out July’s cost of living payments. This is where a government department checks how its policies will affect protected groups – like disabled people. However, in September the DWP did one for the cost of living payments. It stated that of all protected groups by law (like disabled people):

There is no evidence to suggest any specific impacts on customers within any of these protected characteristic groups.

This is likely demonstrably false, given there will be disabled people with high support needs who the DWP is not giving the cost of living payments to. All this is without the 8.6 million chronically ill and disabled people who the DWP did not give the other, £150 cost of living payment to, either.

It is beyond belief that the DWP will be denying some chronically ill and disabled people additional support this winter. This will be along with countless Housing Benefit and Carer’s Allowance claimants, too. Inflation is out of control, hitting food and energy bills hard. So, it will be charities and communities who pick up the pieces of the DWP’s neglect.

Featured image via Frantisek_Krejci – pixabay and Wikimedia

Comments 1

SkolCracker says:

4 years ago

Have you reported on the new criteria for warm home discount (WHD), Steve? This is now largely dependent on the type of property you live in; larger. older detached properties are more likely to fit the criteria. If it’s deemed ‘low energy efficiency’ you’re likely to get the WHD; if you’re in one of the eligible categories, which now excludes PIP, ESA WRAG and ESA Support Group and other disability payments. It seems to me as this is also pitting ‘deserving’ poor against ‘undeserving poor’ i.e. people claiming in-work benefits, people on child tax credits, people who might be able to afford larger properties so have a better chance of help than people not claiming in-work payments and living in smaller properties. We’re deemed not to be in ‘fuel poverty’ if our home has an energy rating of ‘C’ or above regardless of our actual bills and energy requirements but just living in a ‘small’ dwelling doesn’t mean that our energy bills are affordable; the new WHD criteria take no account of people’s actual ability to pay regardless of where they live. For example, those of us living in small flats with poor (or highly flammable) insulation might not get anything at all. Those of us living in caravans or properties that aren’t on the gas supply will get little or nothing. This is just profiting the energy suppliers, the oil and gas companies, the speculators in The City who define the price of gas and oil and their parasitic shareholders. They’re the only ones getting anything ultimately. They’re getting everything. It also seems to me that many people have been taken in by the purported package of ‘help’ (for the energy companies) this autumn and winter, even though it barely helps millions of people at all and the most poverty affected won’t get anything, as you’ve reported widely. I feel this will all really kick in next year when the dust has probably settled on the current energy crisis.

I feel the WHD criteria needs its own report, Steve.